Kansas City Chiefs parade shooting suspect was ‘basically missing his jaw,’ says hero Navy vet who helped capture him
A heroic Navy veteran credits his military training for helping him tackle suspects at the Kansas City Chiefs parade mass shooting — one of whom was “basically missing his jaw” after being shot.
Lifelong Chiefs fan Tony Janssens told Fox News Digital that some people thought the startling sound of gunfire was fireworks during the celebratory event.
“It didn’t sound like fireworks to me,” the Navy veteran recalled. “And then I heard another couple of rounds go off, and then that’s when I dropped to the ground again.
“I looked over to my right where the shots were coming from, and I see a guy lying on the ground with a couple of bullet holes at his side, and he’s already kind of lying down — I kind of understand the severity of the situation,” Janssens continued.
He was horrified to see many in the crowd trying to record the drama with their phones.
“Like, this is real life. You need to get out of here. Like, don’t just sit here and try to record or anything. So I’m telling people to, ‘Leave! Leave! Leave!,’” he said.
As he took off running, Janssens accidentally bumped into the three suspects — one of whom had a gruesome facial injury.
“He’s basically missing his jaw, and he’s freaking out,” he said of the suspect, who was wearing a backpack.
“He doesn’t know what to do. And then his buddies are kind of scrambling. They’re all like, don’t know if they should keep running or help his buddy, since he’s bleeding now,” Janssens said.
“I ran into him, so I kind of backed away for a second. I’m, like, backpedaling. I’m looking at him, trying to understand what’s going on,” he said.
“I didn’t know if he was a victim, or I didn’t know if he was part of the shooting.”
The vet said his military training kicked in and he kept his eye on the wounded suspect.
“I saw him hand over a bag to the other two individuals that he was with. And I see them kind of run — trying to take off and try to escape. And they’re running towards these two semi-trucks, and they get in between these two semi-trucks,” he told the outlet.
Janssens said one of them was wearing a Carhart jacket — which seemed suspicious because it was a comfortable 65 degrees.
He then alerted a state trooper, one of a throng of law enforcement officers at the ill-fated event, about the group.
“‘I think these guys might be part of it. They just kind of look fishy,’” Janssens said he told the cop.
“So as we’re walking up to him, I’m leading. I’m leading him to the guys. They notice that we’re walking up to him, and they start backpedaling a little bit. He looks like he’s kind of concealing something in his jacket,” he said.
When the men began running, Janssens and the officer chased after them.
“I’m jumping barricades, we’re running down the street, and I’m trying to clear people out the way. I’m yelling as I’m chasing after him, ‘Get this guy! Get this guy!’” he said.
The vet said he shouted for several other people to help him tackle a suspect.
“Luckily, these four other guys heard me. And they turn around and said they could hear me yelling to tackle this guy. And I saw him, and luckily they just stepped up and helped tackle him,” he told Fox News Digital.
“As they were tackling him, I think I saw another guy was running away as well. So I kept chasing that guy and then it was just a dead pursuit. So I hurried back and helped these guys try to sustain the situation until cops arrived,” he added.
Janssens said that when the situation was brought under control, he noticed a bag with an AR-style rifle and extended magazines, though he was unsure whether they were used in the mass shooting.
“I wasn’t expecting to try to go out and do anything heroic or anything like that and just kind of kicked on,” he told the outlet, adding that he urged officials to adopt better security measures if the team wins the Super Bowl again next year.
“I’m more than confident that Kansas City will come together, you know, try to get past and work together with everyone, get answers and just try to, you know, mitigate these things from happening again,” he said.
The shooting, which killed one and injured nearly two dozen, was the result of a personal dispute that exploded into violence, officials said Thursday. Three people have been detained.
