One man who is being called a hero after stepping up when someone opened fire at the end of the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade, killing one and injuring 20, says he had a simple reason why the alleged shooter got his attention.
“I looked to my left briefly and saw like a flash… I remember there were other people, and he looked sketchier than the others,” said Trey FIlter of Wichita, Kansas. “It was just a quick thing. I hit him, and the other gentlemen rolled him.”
Trey was spotted on camera tackling a man fleeing the scene of the shooting in Kansas City, who was arrested and is suspected to be one of those who opened fire on Wednesday afternoon.
Filter joined KNX in Los Angeles to discuss the shooting and his reaction to seeing the fleeing gunman, saying that he didn’t think but moved to tackle the suspect with his adrenaline flowing.
“It’s been quite a ride here in the last 24 hours,” Filter said.
Just like he and his family did last year, Filter said he was looking to celebrate his favorite team’s victory, but towards the end of the parade, as they were walking to their car, they heard the gunshots.
He didn’t know what they were.
“I didn’t think they were gunshots because there was a heavy military presence,” Filter said. “They had firepower on the roofs. I think a lot of people, if you’d asked them, probably felt safe there yesterday because of that.”
A few minutes after the shots, Filter said he started to hear people yelling in the crowd, with some people saying, “Get him, get him.”
Bird’s eye view footage of the incident shows Filter tackling the suspect and being helped by another bystander to hold him down while others called for the police.
Filter said that at this point, people were screaming that there was a gun, and in the video, Filter’s wife can also be seen picking up the weapon and moving it away from the three men wrestling on the ground.
Looking back on the situation, Filter said that he isn’t a “badass or anything,” his instincts just took over.
“I thought he still had a firearm. The gentleman helping me was screaming, ‘He’s got a gun.’ So I knew he didn’t have the gun,” Filter said. “So I tried to reach under the man, to feel for it. I didn’t feel the gun, but I saw his ribs, so I just started hitting him.”
While many are calling him a hero, Filter says he’s just happy that his family is unharmed.
“We’re just glad to be home and safe,” Filter said.