Man Who Tackled Alleged Super Bowl Parade Gunman Describes Hectic Scene: ‘We’re Fighting to Keep Him Down’

BURNETT: “And ‘Outfront’ now is Paul Contreras and his daughter Alyssa Marsh-Contreras, they witnessed the shooting and helped tackle someone to the ground who was taken into custody. Paul and Alyssa, thank you so much for being with us. What a terrifying day. Paul, you were there and you shared video here of the moment that you helped tackle this person. What can you tell us about what happened in that moment?”
CONTRERAS: “I just heard somebody yelling to stop this guy, tackle him, and he was coming in the opposite direction, so I just — you don‘t think about it. It‘s just a reaction. He got close to me. I got the right angle on him and I hit him from behind. And when I hit him from behind, I either jarred the gun out of his hand or out of his sleeve, because as I‘m taking him down to the ground, I see the gun on the ground. So I take him down and I‘m putting all my body weight on him, and then another good Samaritan comes over and is helping me because I kind of got him high and the other guy gets him around his waist. And we‘re just putting our weight on him and he‘s just fighting to get up, but we‘re fighting to keep him down. And another Samaritan comes over and puts his weight on us, and we‘re waiting for the cops to show. They finally — they get there and the second cop gets there, the third gets there, then they pretty much take over, and I‘m standing there for about a minute or two. You know, me and the cops didn‘t even have like one or two words, you know. Once they had him and got him cuffed, I sat there for two minutes with all my three daughters, and then we just walked away. We headed toward our car.”
BURNETT: “I mean, it‘s incredible. You‘re there with your three daughters, obviously Alyssa‘s with you now. Paul, can I just ask, when you say that the gun, you don‘t know whether it fell out of his hand or maybe out of his sleeve, right, and when he went down and then the gun goes on the ground, did you see him fire the gun?”
CONTRERAS: “No. No. I didn‘t see him fire the gun. I just — when I tackled him, I‘ve seen what I‘ve seen, like I said, out of his hand or out of his sleeve. Taking him down, I see the gun on the ground.”
BURNETT: “And Alyssa, you‘re there with your dad and your sisters. I know you took this video after, when your dad had tackled this man with the other good Samaritans as he describes it, and then the police officers come as your dad just walks through. So now we see the multiple officers have this man pinned to the ground. What did you see during all of this and what were you even thinking watching your dad do this?”
MARSH-CONTRERAS: “I mean, it all happened so fast. I think the most alarming thing was when we saw cops chasing people, and then seeing a young teen or kid just completely coming at us. And then I noticed just everybody in the crowd just kind of scatters and runs. So from that moment on, I knew something wasn’t right. So, seeing my little sister, along with my older sister, just completely run, and I didn’t want to leave my dad‘s side because we knew what could‘ve happened or if they needed help. So I was just there to make sure, you know, his hat, his phone, his wallet didn’t go missing in the process of him getting this offender down.”
BURNETT: “And, Paul, I know police at this point don‘t really have any details. I mean, they say they‘ve got individuals and I guess it‘s unclear if one of the individuals that they are holding right now is the man that you tackled, we don‘t know yet, unless unless you know. But we don‘t know a motive. I mean, did you hear anything from this man when you got him to the ground? Did he say anything? And what did he look like?”
CONTRERAS: “When I tackled him, when I took him to the ground, he was wearing like a big, bulky, like, work jacket. So when I got him to the ground, he was face down and his hoodie was on. His hood was on. He was face down and I was on top of him, keeping them down until, like I said, another good Samaritan was holding him by the waist down with his body on him. So I really did not get a good look. But as I was holding him down, I didn‘t know if he tried to bite me or just tried to claw at my hand, so I took my hand and put it outside to hold him down with a jacket in between us. Because he was — you know, I‘m holding him down, we’re fighting each other. He wants to get up while I‘m holding him down. Then another guy helps me and then — you know, it just seemed like a long time, but it was probably like 15 or 30 seconds.”
BURNETT: “I c an only imagine.”
CONTRERAS: “Yeah. He was fighting the whole time, you know, fighting the whole time. And we — we were fighting him to keep them down. We didn‘t want to let them up and take off running because he had one gun, he may have had another one in that big bulky jacket.”
BURNETT: “Right. Right, you couldn‘t even tell now. And now it gives some context to what you‘re saying that it could have been in his sleeve, right? I mean, when you talk about this bulky jacket. Alyssa, this happens and your father runs to tackle this man because you hear shots and this guy is — this guy is running, right, with his bulky jacket. Can you describe what the shots sounded like?”
MARSH-CONTRERAS: “So, from the moment — it all happened so fast, like I‘ve said, but it wasn‘t long after the celebration was all done and everybody was kind of dispersing and going back to their cars. Probably a minute or so later and you just hear pop-pop-pop-pop-pop. And like I said, we‘re at a celebration and I think a lot of people thought it was fireworks because nobody really ran or anything. And I assumed that people, you know, noticed it was gunshots or something and we all would have been out of there really quick. But then as soon as we see people getting chased and then cops running and then, not long after, my dad tackling somebody, it soon came to, ‘Okay, those weren’t fireworks for the celebration. It was gunshots.’”
BURNETT: “Well, thank you both so much for sharing this. I can only imagine just sort of how traumatic that was. Thank you for sharing and incredible to imagine, Paul, that you, who were unarmed, I guess, right, that you would run and chase someone who had a gun. It’s incredible.”
CONTRERAS: “Well, I didn‘t know he had a gun until I tackled him, and that‘s when I’ve seen it on the ground.”
BURNETT: “Yeah.”
CONTRERAS: “So, I don‘t know, it was just a reaction.”
BURNETT: “Well, thank goodness for people like you. Thank you both so very much.”
MARSH-CONTRERAS: “Thank you.”
CONTRERAS: “Thank you.”