A crazed 83-year-old gunman allegedly opened fire at a Texas high school, shooting a stranger — before being tackled by a hero group of “band dads” with police and military backgrounds, according to officials.
Dennis Erwin Brandl Jr. has been charged with walking into Pasadena Memorial High School during a Texas Color Guard Circuit drum-line contest late Saturday — then opening fire with a small-caliber handgun, hitting a 26-year-old man who had never seen him before, according to the Pasadena Police Department.
The shooting senior later told cops that “he was being chased by someone and feared he and his wife were going to be killed,” police said.
As the shots started flying, four members of the Pearland Band Dads — who were moving equipment for the Pearland High School band — immediately jumped into action.
“People were coming out screaming, saying, ‘Active shooter, active shooter,’” Joe Sanchez, an off-duty Houston Police Department sergeant, told KHOU.
“So me and Polo were with the same prop, dropped everything and ran through the lobby door,” Sanchez said of fellow dad Efrain ‘Polo’ Castillo, a Marine veteran.
Along with Air Force veteran Abram Trevino and Army veteran Adam Curow, the dads ran toward the gunman and jumped to help someone who already started trying to subdue the shooter.
“I grabbed his arms while Adam took the gun out, and once the gun was removed from his hand, we had no handcuffs, so I took off my belt, made handcuffs, got his right arm secured, got his left arm secured,” Sanchez recalled.
Police later took Brandl into custody. The dads estimate that the whole ordeal only lasted about a minute.
The 26-year-old victim, a percussion technical consultant for the Angleton Independent School District’s band, was taken to an area hospital in stable condition, according to KHOU.
The elderly suspect lives about 35 miles to the north to the school, cops said.
Curow recalled hearing Brandl repeatedly saying, “Someone’s trying to shoot me” while he was on the ground.
“We would look around or scan the area to see if maybe there was an additional or potential second person that may be the person he’s referencing, but there was nobody. It was all spectators, students and parents,” Curow said.
Photos from the scene show the Pearland Band Dads surrounding Brandl and holding him on the group.
Authorities did not say whether or not Brandl was suffering from any medical conditions.
The One In Five Foundation For Kids, a national nonprofit formed after the Uvalde school shooting in 2022, announced Monday that it will honor the Pearland Band Dads with its National Award for Heroism.
“These individuals did not hesitate to jump into action to save lives, plain and simple,” One in Five Foundation founder Daniel Bodhi Chapin said. “Yet, it cannot be underestimated what these individuals did that day. They are heroes.”
Brandl was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and is currently being held in the Harris County jail without bond.
