Texas hero: ‘I know I hit him’

A man some call a hero for engaging in a shootout with the Texas church gunman is a former National Rifle Association instructor.

Stephen Willeford said in an interview with KHBS/KHOG television in Arkansas that he was at home in Sutherland Springs when his daughter heard gunfire at the church.

Willeford says he retrieved his rifle, loaded it and ran barefoot to the church. “I kept hearing the shots, one after another, very rapid shots … and I knew every one of those shots represented someone,” he said.

Willeford said he hid behind a pickup truck and exchanged fire with the gunman, adding, “I know I hit him.”

The gunman, Devin Kelley, got into his vehicle and fled. Willeford said he ran to a pickup truck and asked the driver, later identified as Johnnie Langendorff, to help him.

They sped after the gunman. Kelley’s vehicle hit a road sign and flipped into a roadside ditch.

Willeford said he got out of the truck, perched his rifle on the truck’s rooftop and yelled, “Get out of the truck,” but saw no movement. Law enforcement officials came to the scene. They believe the gunman took his own life. conference. “Most of our church family is gone.”

Church member Nick Uhlig, 34, who was not at Sunday’s service, told The Associated Press that his cousin, who was eight months pregnant, and her in-laws were among those killed. He later told the Houston Chronicle that three of his cousin’s children also were slain.

Vice President Mike Pence said he will travel to Texas on Wednesday to meet with victims of the church shooting.

’Violent tendencies’

President Donald Trump, in Asia, called the killer “deranged” and said the shooting wasn’t “a guns situation.”

As he did following the Las Vegas massacre, Trump resisted any discussion of gun control during a news conference in Tokyo, where he was beginning his first presidential trip to Asia. Instead, Trump characterized the shooting as a “mental health problem at the highest level.”

“This was a very — based on preliminary reports — a very deranged individual. A lot of problems over a long period of time,” Trump said when asked about the shooting as he and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held a joint news conference.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, and local officials also noted the killer’s past record.

“This is a person who had violent tendencies,” Abbott said in an interview with CBS’ “This Morning.”

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-texas, called Kelley “the kind of evil that would look at a small child and callously murder that child.”

Cruz said Kelley had worshipped in the church before.

The shooting occurred in the congressional district of Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-texas, who said his office was working with law enforcement to carry out the investigation. Rep. Dina Titus, D-nev., whose district includes the Las Vegas Strip, reached out to Cuellar to pledge her support.

Titus is also co-sponsor of House legislation that would give the ATF the authority to tightly regulate bump stocks, which the Las Vegas gunman used to accelerate the rate of fire on semi-automatic rifles in his attack.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@ reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter. The Associated Press contributed to this report.