Multiple sites are reporting that it was not just the border patrol agent that pursued the synagogue shooter but a Iraq War vet who charged at him as well!
USA Today reports that Oscar Stewart, 51, was in the back of the room when the shots rang out, he told reporters. The veteran said his military training kicked in.
“I ran to fire. That’s what I did. I didn’t plan it. I didn’t think about it. It’s just what I did,” he said.
Stewart said he started yelling expletives at the gunmen, who stopped shooting when he heard Stewart’s voice.
“Get down!” and “I’m going to kill you,” Stewart said he yelled.
Just that seemed enough to startled the gunman who dropped his weapon and fled to his vehicle outside!
“It was all instinctive… I remember everything, like watching a movie, but nothing was ever planned.” Combat vet Oscar Stewart explains how he chased away the gunman from the Poway synagogue on Saturday.
“It was as if I was the hand of God.” https://t.co/PKKZtqTfNF pic.twitter.com/RKIyEXFw4f
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) April 29, 2019
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Stewart served in Iraq from March 2003 to April 2004. He had also been a bomb disposal tech in the Navy, and joined the Army after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
“I never thought I’d hear gunfire again,” he told the Union-Tribune. “I don’t think I’m a hero,. “I just did what I did,”
“I had spoken to him in the past about coming to the synagogue armed because he’s trained, and I want trained security as much as possible,” Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein told CNN, speaking from a local hospital. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t afford to have an armed security officer at every service, so whenever we had extra help, we were grateful for it.”
It would appear that the Rabbi also believes that a good guy with a gun is the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun so he asked the border patrol agent to attend services with his firearm! …and he was right! This shooting could have been far worse had these two heroes not been present.
