Josh Neudorf was celebrating his upcoming wedding when he came face-to-face with a gunman inside Hudsons Canada’s Pub in downtown Saskatoon.
It was karaoke night and the groom-to-be was stepping outside to smoke. There was a loud bang that some in the bar thought could have been a firework or a champagne cork.
It was the sound of a rifle going off, launching Neudorf into action.
“I just didn’t think. I reacted,” Neudorf said.
Neudorf rushed the shooter, grappling to gain control of the gun. He didn’t know whether the attacker still had his finger on the trigger.
His groomsman, Jesse Heit, recalls Neuford pinning the gunman against the door of the women’s washroom. Overcome by adrenaline, Heit jumped in but didn’t know a gun was involved.
He doesn’t remember hearing the second shot.
“It went off when Josh had him pinned against the door, I think,” Heit told Global News.
He does recall the smell of gunpowder in the women’s washroom. They’d managed to tackle the assailant to the ground, and best man Joey Duong got in on the scrap, too.
As they pummelled the shooter, Heit remembers trying to rip the gun away. Eventually, he got it loose.
“Then miraculously it just popped into my hands,” Heit said, crediting his friend’s physical blows with “softening up” the attacker.
He carried the gun over the bartender and told him to call the police, who were already dispatched. With help on the way, the men pinned down the suspect and waited.
Police said officers were on the scene by around 1 a.m. Wednesday.
The groom’s only injury was a scratch on his hand. Duong had a few marks and light bruising as well.
Saskatoon police brought the 25-year-old suspect into custody, but police did not release his name and he did not appear in court Wednesday. He now faces weapons-related offences.
Investigators are scouring video surveillance and piecing together several witness accounts, including from those who stepped in.
“Their actions were commendable and their actions may have prevented something seriously worse,” Insp. Cam McBride said.
Police call the choices of the Neudorf and his groomsmen “quick and heroic,” though Neudorf insists it was a team effort.
“If my friends didn’t do what they did, I wouldn’t have made it out the way I did,” Neudorf said.
Hudsons opened Wednesday morning for its regular hours. A woman who identified herself as a manager but declined to give her name told Global News “nothing’s changed and we’re still the same happy pub.”