Saturday, June 8, 2019

Heroes Hidden in Hindsight - Remembering the Legendary People in Active Shooter Incidents




                The second an active shooter enters, adrenaline spikes and people scatter for safety.  Amidst heightened blood pressure and blood loss, someone decides to risk their life because they might die anyway.  When the news breaks about the latest shooting episode, the perpetrator gets significantly more attention than the random paladin, who gets a few minutes of fame.  The spotlight turns away to the next grisly news story.  People share articles once on Facebook and then continue scrolling.  Afterward, the courageous names elude our minds.

                As these incidents become more frequent, more heroes emerge.  During research, more people worthy of mentioning kept coming up in print, but this list had to be curtailed or else this article would be 50 pages long.  I chose 17 magnanimous individuals who saved people, took down the shooter, or died trying.  They are listed by incident date in descending order.  Six people died in combatting the shooter, five lived but were injured, and only four came out unscathed.  One, I was unsure of his injuries, and one never came in contact with the shooter but was courageous nonetheless.  Liviu Librescu and Anthony Borges both blocked doorways, preventing the rampager from accessing potential victims.  Victoria Soto and Shannon Wright both shielded children with their own bodies.

                Out of the eleven surviving individuals on this list, seven denied feeling like a hero.  They expressed thoughts of self-preservation, instinctual behavior, and that anyone else would have taken the same course of action.
                With modesty, they can continue grocery shopping without interruption or getting mobbed for autographs at the gym.  Plastering the culprit’s face on news reels raises awareness of a dangerous person, but infamy is hardly shaming when the crime is intimidating.  The good guys get a blip of screen time and blurbed articles, which people acknowledge for a few minutes tops before scrolling onto the next meme on social media.  This may be another blurb that the public will scroll past, but it contributes to the recognition of these brave souls, and they deserve to go down in history for their good deeds.




Date:  May 17, 2019
Incident:  Parkrose High School Attempted Shooting
Location:  Portland, Oregon


Keanon Lowe

                It was the day before the prom when an 18-year-old student, Angel Granados Dias, entered a classroom with a shotgun.  The school security guard, Keanon Lowe, had him on the ground.  No one died, and no one was harmed, except for the foiled shooter who probably had a few well-deserved bruises from the take down.

                Lowe was not just a security guard, but also the football and track coach.  During his college years, he played football for the University of Oregon Ducks.  Before working at Parkrose High School, he was a football analyst for the Philadelphia Eagles and the San Francisco 49ers.  NBC and CBS raced to cover his story.

                Without Coach Lowe being in the right place and time, an unknowable number of lives would have ended, and wounds inflicted with varying acuity.  There would be fewer prom goers, but no one was harmed, and the prom still commenced as scheduled.  There are no missing seats at graduation.  Lowe’s tackle was well played.


[UPDATE - 10/19/2019]  Surveillance footage was released, and it turns out that Coach Lowe disarmed the student before he could enter the classroom.  Instead of tackling the student, they hugged in the middle of the hallway.  Another faculty member walked away with the gun.  As of October 2019, the potential killer was sentenced to three years’ probation including mandatory mental health services.
 



Date:  May 7, 2019
Incident:  STEM School Highlands Ranch Shooting
Location:  Highlands Ranch, Colorado


Kendrick Castillo, Brendan Bialy, Josh Jones

                The British Literature class was watching The Princess Bride when one of the shooters stormed into the classroom.  Kendrick Castillo was within 10 feet of the killer, Devon Erickson.  He rushed the shooter, taking a bullet to the chest.  Castillo pushed the shooter to the wall, and then Brendan Bialy and Josh Jones helped take down the perpetrator.  The other classmates were able to flee to safety.

                Bialy pried the gun from Erickson’s hands, and Jones tackled him.  Jones took two bullets to his left leg, and while pinning the murderer, Jones decided to call his mother and let her know he was going to be okay.  Brendan and a teacher helped give first aid to Kendrick.  Other students applied pressure to the wound.  Bialy tried to talk to Castillo, but no voice came.  Kendrick Castillo died protecting his class, who were all an extension of his family.

                Castillo was raised to be brave and moral, and he admired his Marine veteran grandfather who had passed away.  While his grandfather was alive, they used to go camping and fishing together, according to CNN.  It would be nice to believe they reunited in the afterlife and were camping again.

                Bialy was accepted into the Marines for his courage and risking his life to save others.  He strongly believes that heroes in active shooter situations deserve more recognition.  He said, “Kendrick Castillo is the name I think should not go away to the sands of time,” as quoted by NBC.

                Josh Jones gave a recorded interview with ABC reporters with his parents present.  He gave a detailed account of everything that transpired.  He did not feel like a hero.  Both Jones and Bialy felt like they were acting on instinct.  Although he disregards his own hero labeling, Josh wants to become a paramedic.



Date:  March 15, 2019
Incident:  Christchurch Mosque Attacks
Locations:  Al Noor and Linwood mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand


Naeem Rashid

                Some heroes are martyrs.  The majority of Christchurch’s bloodshed took place at Al Noor Mosque, and one man was not going to just forfeit his life.  Naeem Rashid attempted to tackle the killer, Brenton Tarrant.  Rashid was shot fatally.  His family mourned him, and his father admired his son’s self-sacrifice.

                Rashid was a teacher in Christchurch, New Zealand.  His son, who died during the attack, had graduated with a civil engineering degree.  Rashid’s wife survived them, and she was proud of them both, according to Al Jazeera.

                Naeem Rashid was post-humorously honored with a national award for his courage.  Taking his chances against the bigoted monstrosity was a courageous attempt to cut the rampage short.  Tarrant continued killing, but Rashid refused to surrender his life and other people’s lives – just because they were different.



Abdul Aziz Wahabzadah

                Brenton Tarrant killed significantly fewer people at the second location, Linwood Mosque, namely because of Abdul Aziz Wahabzadah.  His heroics belong in an adrenaline-packed action movie!  The AP News detailed his story well, along with numerous sources that wanted to document the riveting account. 
There were over 80 people inside the mosque.  Wahabzadah espied Tarrant out a window.  The gunman was yelling profanity and shooting people.  Abdul Aziz warned everyone to get down.  A bullet shattered a window, and a man was shot.
                Wahabzadah grabbed the closest item, a credit card machine, and ran outside screaming, “Come here!”  Tarrant went back to his car to get another gun, and Abdul Aziz threw the credit card machine at him.  Tarrant rearmed himself, firing again.  Abdul weaved between parked cars, evading bullets.  He found a dropped shotgun, tried to shoot Tarrant, but it was empty.  Tarrant retreated to his car again, and Abdul threw the empty shotgun like a javelin at Tarrant’s car, shattering the windshield.  Tarrant drove away, cursing.  Abdul chased the car to a red light, and Tarrant made a U-turn, driving away.
                Abdul Aziz Wahabzadah was a refugee from Afghanistan, and he wasn’t going to put up with terrorism from a white supremacist.  Abdul knew it was not his time to die, and that Allah was with him.  He rebuked the hero branding, because he said that anyone would have taken action as he had.  However, out of his congregation of 80+ people, his deeds stood out.  No one else was battling Tarrant.



Date:  April 22, 2018
Incident:  Nashville Waffle House Shooting
Location:  Nashville, Tennessee


James Shaw Jr.

                This man also did not see himself as a hero.  He was in self-preservation mode when Travis Reinking attacked.  After a night of clubbing, James Shaw Jr. and his friend went to the Waffle House on Bell Road.  In a dark twist of destiny, they chose to leave the overcrowded waffle joint in favor of the Murfreesboro Pike location, where the shooting occurred.

When he first heard the shots, he thought it was shattering plates.  A bullet grazed Shaw’s elbow as he retreated behind a swivel door leading to the bathroom.  Four people had already been shot fatally.  The Washington Post quoted his thoughts at the time, “[…] if it was going to come down to it, he was going to have to work to kill me.”  Either Reinking started to reload or his gun was jammed.  Shaw heard a pause in the shooting, and he took that opportunity.  He grabbed the hot gun barrel, wrestled it out of the perpetrator’s hands, and threw the gun over the counter.  The gunman fled the Waffle House.  Shaw was hospitalized for his wound and burns on his hands.

                Shaw focused on saving himself without realizing that his struggle resulted in numerous bystanders being saved too.  Self-preservation is an instinct, and it is completely normal to want to save yourself.  James Shaw Jr. was an unintentional hero, and he was humble about his courageous deed in interviews.  Because of his gutsy drive to stay alive, the other people could continue living.



Date:  February 14, 2018
Incident:  Stoneman Douglas High School Shooting
Location:  Parkland, Florida


Anthony Borges

                During the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, 15-year-old Anthony Borges took five bullets.  He used his body to block entry for Nikolas Cruz, who could not access and kill anyone inside the classroom.  There were twenty students, whose lives were spared.  Standing in the doorway, Borges nearly gave his life.
                The boy’s heroism required intense surgery afterward.  One third of Borges’s lung had to be removed.  One bullet threatened his liver.  He was the last Stoneman Douglas High School shooting patient to be discharged.  He had a total of nine surgeries, and he still needs surgeries at future dates.

                He may be a boy, but he has been called, “the real Iron Man.”  Like many unexpected avengers, Anthony also denies his hero title.  According to the Miami Herald, he said, "I only did what I could, what I had to, [to] save others."  His surviving classmates were the ones who gave him the nickname, and one actor from the movie, Iron Man, sent him video messages, praising him as a hero and hoping for his recovery.  One thing Borges did not have to sacrifice was soccer.  Doctors said he would soon be able to play again.



Date:  October 1, 2017
Incident:  Route 91 Harvest Music Festival Shooting
Location:  Las Vegas, Nevada


Steve Keys

                At the country music festival, an off-duty firefighter saw a woman collapse.  She was shot multiple times, and she was 15 feet in front of him.  The firefighter, Steve Keys, ducked down, and ran to help.  He assessed the damage and started CPR.  In the third round of bullets, Keys was grazed.  He continued to do CPR until he realized she was beyond revival.

                Keys crawled toward the center, grassy area.  Bullets came raining down, and he was lucky to survive another round.  He relocated to the bleachers, where people were being treated.  There, he helped more victims and even ran IVs when an off-duty nurse arrived.  Keys and other unnamed heroes pitched in to help the wounded.  The police approved them using someone’s van to shuttle injured people to the ambulance area, as recounted from ABC News.

                Being grazed by a bullet is a near hit, and normal people would have panicked and fled.  Lightning doesn’t strike twice, so maybe it was strategic to stay in one spot at that given moment.  This man continued to do CPR and when he could no longer help one person, he persisted to assist other people despite himself being injured.  A bullet grazing his left side did not stop Steve Keys from helping others, all while dodging a hail storm of bullets.



Chris Bethel

                Far from the concert, high above, the closest hero was two stories below the perpetrator at the Mandalay Bay casino hotel.  There was no mistaking bullets for fireworks.  The Iraq War veteran recognized the gunshots immediately, and also noted the change in calibers between rounds.  The veteran, Chris Bethel, was alone in his hotel room.  He tried to call 911, but no one was picking up.  The emergency lines were already overflowing with calls about the same incident, but the one who knew where the killer was – could not get through.  Bethel tried to call the front desk, and then tried calling the hotel across the street.  No one was picking up.  Bethel did not give up.  He finally got through to the police and gave the invaluable information that led them to the shooter.

                Even though Bethel did the right thing, he was overwhelmed with the feeling that he did not take action quickly enough, CBS reported.  With unresponsive emergency services, phone lines were tied and communication was more difficult.  Like a soldier, Chris Bethel did not stop.  Bethel did everything in his power to report the shooter, Stephen Paddock.  The mass murderer was one of the deadliest in US history, and if there were more 911 dispatchers hired, maybe Bethel’s call would have come through earlier, and Paddock would have been apprehended sooner, sparing more lives.  If it brings any solace, the remaining ammunition signifies the bullets that never hit anyone.  Bethel stopped Paddock from using those bullets.



Date:  December 14, 2012
Incident:  Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting
Location:  Newtown, Connecticut


Dawn Hochsprung

                Principal Hochsprung was in a meeting at Sandy Hook Elementary when she heard gunshots.  An adult not old enough to drink, Adam Lanza, stood in the hallway with his military assault rifle, wearing a bulletproof vest.  Dawn was 47 years old, and 5 foot 2.  She rushed up to Adam Lanza in an attempt to stop him.  Only bullets stopped this principal.  She died letting him know that not everyone would cower before his gun barrel.

                In addition to being principal, she was in graduate school in pursuit of a doctorate degree.  Enhancing school security was one of her goals at Sandy Hook.  She also had a fun side.  To encourage reading, she was known to dress up as the “Sandy Hook Book Fairy.”  Dawn was unarmed in her defense against Lanza, but if she were, this fairy would have hit him with the book.

(Source:  Fallen Heroes Project)



Victoria Leigh Soto

                This first grade teacher hid ten first grade students in a closet.  Other students were hiding elsewhere within the classroom.  Adam Lanza entered.  Ms. Soto said the students fled to the gym.  Then a few refuging students tried to run, and the gunman knew she lied.  He tried to shoot those children, and she dove in, shielding them with her body.  She saved at least one child, and the parents are eternally grateful.  They would never be able to thank Ms. Soto, because the bullets she took for the children took her life instead.

                Initially, I read that she said the children went to the gymnasium, and that Lanza simply shot her anyway, and then moved on.  Then new sources mentioned the scared children fleeing, resulting in Lanza’s detection.  A strange miracle occurred though.  CBS mentioned that a few children ran past Adam Lanza, who was in the doorway.  Did Lanza spare them, or was he unable to ready the Bushmaster .223?
                Ms. Soto died that Friday in December, and Christmas was her favorite holiday.  Her mother was unsurprised that she defended the children.  The heroic woman was 27 years old, and lived for her job of teaching children.



Date:  December 14, 2010
Incident:  Panama School Board Shooting
Location:  Panama City, Florida


Ginger Littleton

                This woman hit a failed shooter with her handbag.  Clay Duke was upset over his wife’s termination, and spray painted the emblem from V for Vendetta on a wall before failing to murder people on the Bay District school board.

                Among the people selected to be spared, Ginger complied with Duke’s initial direction to leave the room.  Duke fired a few shots at the board members and missed every time.  He came around the dais to reattempt shooting his unmoving victims, including Superintendent Husfelt.  In the doorway behind the would-be killer was Ginger Littleton.  Security was taking awhile, and she knew she was in a position to take action.  She swung her faux crocodile bag at Duke, attempting to dislodge the gun from his hand.  It didn’t work.  He pushed her to the floor, and she gave a cry of reasonable fear.  He cursed at her, pointing the gun at her, but he did not shoot her.  The armed security guard finally arrived and shot Clay Duke, who then shot himself.  Only the gunman died in this incident.

                The guard, Mike Jones, was praised as a hero, but Ginger Littleton was only armed with a handbag and tried to fight an active shooter.  Clay Duke was a dumb shot, but no one knew that, and he really could have killed someone.  CNN covered her story and even the contents of her bag.  Littleton’s daughters thought she was crazy, and she concurred that it was not a good idea.  I disagree.  It takes guts to aspire for heroism.



Date:  April 16, 2007
Incident:  Virginia Tech Massacre
Location:  Blacksburg, Virginia


Liviu Librescu

                On April 16, 2007 in Norris Hall, a professor blocked a classroom doorway and took bullets to allow his students to escape through the windows.  Dr. Liviu Librescu was an engineering professor for 22 years at Virginia Polytechnic Institute.  During his life he had earned a list of awards and had numerous publications, filling up his textbook-thick resume.  The shooter, Cho Seung Hui, may have brainlessly demolished a great mind, but Librescu left a trail of accomplishments for everyone to admire.

                Liviu Librescu was a Holocaust survivor.  He was born in Romania, and confined to a Jewish ghetto as a boy, while his father was sent to a concentration camp.  With all the hardships he was able to endure, it is plausible that surviving a school shooting was not his aim, but to let others survive, those who had their whole lives ahead of them.  At the age of 76, Dr. Librescu taught only because he loved teaching.
                The professor’s awards continued to compile post-humorously.  Scholarships have been named in his honor, and Stockton University named a room after Librescu in their Holocaust Resource Center, according to Virginia Tech’s website.



Date:  March 21, 2005
Incident:  Red Lake High School Massacre
Location:  Red Lake, Minnesota


Jeffrey May

                Jeffrey May attempted to take down the shooter, Jeffrey Weise.  Weise was tall and chubby, and May played football and basketball.  May witnessed his girlfriend, Alicia White, die and then his friend Dewayne Lewis Miller was shot dead.  Weise pulled the trigger on the teacher, Mrs. Dobbs, but the gun was out of ammunition.  Weise started to reload, and May sprang up and tried to stab him with a sharpened pencil.  Weise shot May in the jaw, causing him to fall to the floor with a mouth full of blood.  Pain seared down his spinal column.

                Even for a large person, attempting to fight a school shooter is a deadly risk.  It’s not as easy as people think.  Every situation is different.  Normally, pre-planned stunts of downing a gunman are dumb fantasies.  May faced reality.  Wahabzadah’s scenario was an outlier.  May was not Neo from the Matrix, but a real human who was willing to take a bullet - point blank.  A boy who was fit enough to play the most dangerous sport in high school literally took a stab at the shooter and rolled the dice on death.  The will to take that risk revealed his bravery.

                In the hospital, Mrs. Dobbs visited him a week after the massacre.  May’s face and neck were heavily bandaged, and he could not talk.  He communicated with a dry erase board.  MPR News reported that he wrote to the teacher, “I thought you were dead.”  May did not know the chamber was empty when the gun was aimed at Dobbs.  When May rushed the killer, he prevented him from re-attempting that shot.  Weise’s focus was shifted to May.

                May was heralded as a hero in the Red Lake Reservation.  Instead of hiding, he took action.  To take that flying, stabbing leap of faith, it took guts and timing.  It also took sacrifice.  May was in a wheel chair and he lost his football scholarship, and muscle strength in his left side.  He was awarded $750,000 for his heroism.  He bought a house.
                A decade later, his 8 inch scar still stretched down from jaw to neck.  He could get plastic surgery, but declined that option.  MPR News quoted him, “I prefer to keep it as a souvenir.”



Date:  March 24, 1998
Incident:  West Side Middle School Ambush
Location:  Jonesboro, Arkansas


Shannon Wright

                The massacre in Jonesboro, Arkansas was overshadowed by Columbine, but Shannon Wright’s brave act should be remembered.  The juvenile killers staged a fake fire drill and hid in a distance brush, shooting emerging students.  The New York Times said a “red bead” was targeting Emma Pittman, and Mrs. Wright pushed this child, and put herself in the line of fire, saving the 11-year-old girl.  Mrs. Wright took a fatal wound, and died in the hospital.

                This was not a mean teacher.  Her husband knew she wasn’t the type to trash-talk students, and loved her job.  She did not criticize any of her students, even the killers, Andrew Golden and Mitchell Johnson, both of whom she taught.

                Instead of shying from the laser, she risked getting killed just to push a girl out of the way.  She sacrificed her own life to save a younger person, who had a long life ahead of her.  It was an act of agape.  Mrs. Wright earned eternal gratitude from the Pittman family, and the teacher would never hear it.



Date:  October 30, 1985
Incident:  Springfield Mall Shooting
Location:  Springfield, Pennsylvania


John W. Laufer III

                This man successfully took down a shooter, and he came out unscathed.  Not many people talk about this hero, and he deserves recognition.  John Laufer III was a 24-year-old volunteer firefighter at a time when mass shootings were not a monthly news story.  Not only did Laufer mistake the gunshot sounds for fireworks, but when the deadly woman approached, Laufer was still in denial, thinking she was shooting blanks.  This was 1985, when mass murder was less expected.

Clad in military fatigues, the paranoid schizophrenic perpetrator, Sylvia Seegrist, was advancing toward Laufer and his female friend.  Seegrist tried to shoot Laufer, but missed him and the bullet hit another woman behind him.  Seegrist aimed her .22 semi-automatic rifle at Laufer again as he approached.  He later said it felt like a dream, and he still doesn’t know how the bullet missed his body.  Standing 6 foot 2, John Laufer III tackled Sylvia Seegrist, ending her rampage.

Laufer denied the hero label.  United Press International quoted him saying, “It was just a job that had to be done, and I was just glad I was there to do it to prevent any further harm to any other patrons of the mall.”  His father was proud, and UPI said Laufer’s fire chief was unsurprised, saying, “We wouldn't expect anything different from Jack.”


©2019 Caroline Friehs
Originally posted:  June 8, 2019
Updated on:  October 19, 2019



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Photo credits

Keanon Lowe  NBC

Kendrick Castillo  NBC

Brendan Bialy  NBC

Josh Jones  The Denver Channel


Abdul Aziz Wahabzadah  Deutsche Welle

James Shaw Jr.  CNN

Anthony Borges  NBC

Steve Keys  ABC 7

Chris Bethel  CBS

Dawn Hochsprung  The Daily Beast

Victoria Leigh Soto  CBS

Ginger Littleton  Inside Edition

Liviu Librescu  We Remember - Virginia Tech

Jeffrey May  Minnesota Public Radio

Shannon Wright  Find a Grave

John W. Laufer III  CBS