Abram Trevino, Adam Curow, Efrain ‘Polo’ Castillo and Joe Sanchez used their military and police backgrounds to subdue the 83-year-old man at a band competition.
PASADENA, Texas — A group of dads who took down a suspect during an active shooter scare at Pasadena Memorial High School Saturday night will be honored for their act of heroism.
The 83-year-old gunman shot and injured a man during a band competition, according to the Pasadena Police Department.
The four dads, who are part of a group known as the Pearland Band Dads, were moving equipment for Pearland High School when they heard the commotion.
“People were coming out screaming, saying, ‘Active shooter, active shooter,’ so me and Polo were with the same prop, dropped everything and ran through the lobby door,” Joe Sanchez told KHOU 11.
Sanchez, an HPD sergeant, Marine Corps veteran Efrain ‘Polo’ Castillo, Air Force veteran Abram Trevino and Army veteran Adam Curow didn’t hesitate.
Sanchez said another man had already started to subdue the suspect when he and the other Pearland Band Dads jumped into action.
“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 said.
Cellphone video and photos obtained by KHOU 11 show the Pearland Band Dads surrounding the gunman.
“I grabbed his wrist and was tackling to get the handgun free. I finally got it free,” Curow said. “Then, I went ahead and cleared the pistol and kept it in my hand. I put the pistol behind my back. That way it was secured, and no one has to grab it or utilize it.”
The Pasadena Police Department identified the suspect as 83-year-old Dennis Erwin Brandl, Jr. They said Brandl, Jr. told officers that he thought he was being chased and feared he and his wife were going to be killed. He left his home in Spring and ended up in Pasadena, where he then went into the school.
“When the suspect was on the ground, he kept saying that, ‘Someone’s trying to shoot me, someone’s trying to shoot me,'” Curow said. “And 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.”
The man in his 20s who was shot is expected to be OK, PPD said. Angleton Independent School District said he is a percussion technical consultant for their band.
‘They are heroes’
The One In Five Foundation For Kids, a national nonprofit formed in response to the May 2022 Uvalde school shooting, 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 Chapin said. “Yet, it cannot be underestimated, what these individuals did that day. They are heroes.”
Community members who were at the band competition echoed the sentiment.
” … All these band parents are just different, and they’re incredible. They’re incredible role models for their children, and myself,” Pearland High School Director of Percussion Clay Jasper said.
The band dads weren’t the only heroes on Saturday.
Ashley Yen, the Director of Color Guard for Kempner High School, said she tried to help the man who was shot.
“I saw him behind the dumpster, laying down. He was wearing a black shirt and khaki pants, and I didn’t see the blood at first, so I didn’t know what was going on,” Yen told KHOU 11. “But I jumped down next to him, and then someone said he was shot, so I started holding pressure where the t-shirt was and I was holding his hand and I was talking to him, making sure he was OK.”