In a very emotional interview with Stephen Willeford, the former NRA instructor details how he gave chase to the Texas church shooter and the gunfight that likely wounded him, ending his massacre.
As we all know, two heroic citizens stepped forward during the shooting incident which took place this Sunday at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, after shooter Devin Patrick Kelley unloaded fire on people which were attending the morning service.
Watch The Gripping Interview:
Stephen Willeford, the man who shot church gunman, breaks his silence https://t.co/uV1JsUhH0B
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) November 7, 2017
The Details Of The Chase:
“He saw me and I saw him and I was standing behind the pickup truck for cover,” Willeford said. “And we exchanged, unlike, it was surreal to me, it couldn’t be happening, I couldn’t believe it.”
“And we exchanged gunfire, I know I hit him, I don’t know where I hit him, but I know I hit him,” he continued. “And he got into his vehicle and he fired another couple of rounds through his side window.”
“And I fired when the window dropped,” he added, “I fired another round at him again. And one as he was pulling away and he turned down 539, and he sped away.”
“And I noticed that there as a full wheel drive Dodge truck,” he said, “another truck, sitting at the stop sign and the guy had watched this whole thing take place. I ran over to his truck, and I said, ‘that guy just shot up the Baptist church. We need to stop him.’ He opened his door and I got in, and we pursued.”
After chasing him down, he described how he kept his gun ready until the police arrived. “I reached down to open the door, still with my rifle in hand, and he sped up and he hit a road sign and it flipped over, the truck, or his SUV,” he said, “he ran across up on the road about another 100 yards, down and down into the ditch.”
“And Johnny stopped the truck on the road and I told him I said, ‘get down, get down,’ he got down in the truck and I stepped out of the door and I put my rifle across the hood of the truck, and was yelling get out of the truck get out of the truck get out of the truck,” he said.
Willeford said he saw no movement from the killer’s direction, and waited there until the police arrived.
Humble Hero:
After helping take down the shooter and launching him off the side of the road, Willeford was praised as a hero by churchgoers as well as the police, but this is his first time speaking out since the tragedy.
“I’m no hero. All I want to stress today, is the people at that church, they’re friends of mine, they’re family, and every time I heard a shot I knew that probably represented a life,” said the man who did one of the most heroic acts in recent times, explaining, “I was scared for me and I was scared for every one of them, and I was scared for my own family that lived less than a block away.”
But perhaps the most touching part was when Willeford thanked the Lord for protecting him and giving him “the skills to do what needed to be done.”
h/t Blaze, USANewsFlash
