Juan F. Lopez was waiting in line with his family to see his stepson in a band performance at Pasadena Memorial High School on a February weekend when he heard the first shot.
Lopez, a 42-year-old robotics teacher at Cypress Ranch High School, said he quickly told his wife to grab their 7-year-old son and run while his mother-in-law got under the table with the ticket clerk. Lopez's father-in-law, however, was in a motorized scooter and couldn't get away in time on his own.
Lopez said he tried to grab the scooter to move his father-in-law, who fell to the floor. As he tried to help up his father-in-law, Lopez noticed someone was behind him.
"I looked to my right, and the man was behind me ... with a gun," Lopez said. "I did two jumps back and I ended up behind him. When I got behind him, I locked his left arm with my arm ... but he had the gun in his right arm, so when he felt that, he tried to shoot me from behind."
During the ensuing struggle, the shooter fired another shot, according to Lopez, who said he was ultimately able to hold him until help arrived.
"Then he asked me to let him go and I told him I was not going to let him go because I was afraid that he was going to hurt someone," Lopez said.
An employee for Angleton ISD was shot that day and was treated for his injuries at a local hospital. The man accused of shooting the school district employee, 83-year-old Dennis Brandl, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Brandl died less than a month after the shooting, with the Harris County medical examiner determining he died from natural causes.
Now, Lopez is being recognized for heroism for his role in stopping the accused shooter. Lopez will be the recipient of the Carnegie Medal, awarded by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. According to the commission, the medal is awarded to those "who risk themselves to an extraordinary degree saving or attempting to save the lives of others."
Lopez, a Hockley resident, said he was honored to have been chosen for the award.
"I'm not a person that normally seeks for attention or recognition, so it feels great," he said. "It's very nice to be recognized as a hero. I don't consider myself a hero. I think whatever I did on that day was more like instincts."
After finding out he had won the award, Lopez said he didn't immediately tell his family and that even his wife didn't know until she saw it on the news.
"It's funny because she sent me a text with my picture, I guess, on the news," he said. "And she [was] like, ‘Juan Lopez, what is this?' I just started laughing [and] told her, ‘Surprise.'"
It can take more than a month for the Carnegie Medal to be made, so Lopez said he doesn't yet know exactly when he will be presented with the physical award. But he expects some type of ceremony to take place early on in the new year.
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