Paul Contreras: Heroic man reveals how he tackled Kansas City Chiefs' parade shooter and held him down

KANSAS, MISSOURI: Paul Contreras, a heroic bystander at the Kansas City Chiefs parade, has described how he and his friend tackled one of the suspected shooters during the shooting on Wednesday, 14 February.

The shooting claimed the life of a DJ and reportedly injured 30 people which the police say was not an "act of terrorism but a dispute between several people", according to TMZ.

Paul Contreras earlier thought the gunshots were fireworks 

Contreras, who was attending the parade with his three daughters, told KETV that he thought he heard fireworks at first, but soon realized it was gunfire.

He then saw a man running and another man chasing him and yelling for someone to stop him.

“I didn’t think about it. It’s just a reaction,” Contreras said he did not hesitate to spring into action and went to tackle the fleeing man, along with another good Samaritan, Trey Filter.

As they were wrestling him to the ground, Contreras said he saw the man’s weapon fall out of his hand or sleeve.

He said that they held the man down for what seemed like forever, but it was about 30 seconds. Paul said, "We're fighting each other, you know. We're fighting to keep him down and he's fighting to get up."

Paul Contreras' daughter says it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but a bad one 

Marsh-Contreras, Paul's daughter said it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to attend the parade, but they also left with another once-in-a-lifetime experience, but not a good one.

Contreras said they will not let this incident deter them from going to other large events in the future.

“We went for a once in a lifetime experience, and to leave with another once in a lifetime experience but not a good one,” he said.

Contreras and his daughter, Marsh-Contreras, are both safe and back home in Bellevue, Nebraska.

Paul Contreras says this could happen anywhere but this time it happened to be the Super Bowl parade

They said they were saddened by the tragedy that marred the celebration of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl win.

He said they can’t be scared and that there is always a chance of something bad happening anywhere, even at work or the grocery store. He said this just happened to be the Super Bowl parade.

"You can't be scared, you know. Not saying you want it to happen, but there's always that chance. It could happen at work, the grocery store," Paul said.

"This just happened to be the Super Bowl Parade," he added.