‘There was no thinking about it’: men chase down shooter
A barefoot Texas man who grabbed his assault rifle and opened fire on the gunman who slaughtered 26 people at a smalltown church has been hailed as a hero, along with the pickup truck driver who helped to chase the killer down.
‘‘I didn’t want this, and I want the focus to be on my friends,’' Stephen Willeford, 55, told
for a story published yesterday that also confirmed he was the first person to confront Devin Patrick Kelley. ‘‘I have friends in that church. I was terrified while this was going on.’'
Johnnie Langendorff said he was driving to Sutherland Springs to pick up his girlfriend when a man who had been exchanging gunfire with Kelley suddenly jumped inside his pickup truck.
‘‘He jumped in my truck and said, `He just shot up the church, we need to go get him’. And I said, `Let’s go’,’' Langendorff, a 27-yearold Seguin resident, said.
Langendorrf said he didn’t know the name of the armed man who had sheltered behind a parked pickup truck while exchanging gunfire with Kelley. But when the man jumped into Langendorff’s truck, they immediately began pursuing Kelley’s vehicle in a chase that reached speeds upwards of 145kmh.
Texas Department of Public Safety Regional Director Freeman Martin said the man riding with Langendorff was toting an AR assault rifle, and ‘‘engaged’' the shooter.
Langendorff said Kelley eventually lost control of his vehicle and crashed, prompting the armed man with him to cautiously approach Kelley’s vehicle with his gun drawn. But Kelley didn’t move.
Police arrived about five minutes later, said Langendorff, who did not know if the man had wounded Kelley during their earlier exchange of gunfire. Based on evidence at the scene, investigators believe Kelley died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
‘‘There was no thinking about it,’' Langendorff said. ‘‘There was just doing. That was the key to all this.‘’
Asked if he felt like a hero, Langendorff said: ‘‘I don’t really know how I feel. I just hope that the families and people affected by this can sleep easier knowing that this man is not breathing any more and not able to hurt anyone else. I feel I just did what was right.’'
While Langendorff did not identify the man with him, Sutherland Springs resident Julius Kepper said the man was his neighbour, Willeford.
Kepper described Willeford as a gun and motorcycle enthusiast who regularly took part in target practice at a property out in the country, and had as many as five Harley-Davidsons. ‘‘Avid gun collector, a good guy,’' he said.
Kepper said he was not surprised that Willeford would exchange gunfire with the church gunman. Others in the neighbourhood would have done the same if they knew what was happening, he said. ‘‘He was just the first one there.’'
Martin echoed those sentiments, saying: ‘‘The number one goal of law enforcement is to neutralise the shooter. In this situation, we had two good Samaritans who did that for law enforcement.’'