Stephen Willeford doesn’t consider himself a hero, but today many in the nation do after he ran after the Texas church shooter on a mission to stop him. Willeford is heartbroken after what he heard unleashed in the church that sits across the road from his house, the same church his friends attend.
He said that every time he heard a shot, he knew that it “probably represented another life.” According to the AJC News, Willeford said he was scared .
“I was scared to death. I was. I was scared for me. I was scared for them. I was scared for my own family that lived a block away.”
Despite being scared, when Willeford was at home and heard the sounds of gunshots coming from the neighboring church, he didn’t even take the time to put on his shoes. The man, who is deemed a hero today, grabbed his rifle and ran out of the house barefoot toward the church.
Willeford said he engaged the shooter, who was later identified as Devin Kelley, and he knows he hit him, but he is not sure where his bullet made contact with the gunman. Once Kelley was hit, he got into his vehicle and he fired out his side window as Willeford fired back at him while he pulled away.
It was at that time Johnnie Langendorff happened to be going by and Willeford reached out to him for a ride to chase down the shooter. Those two men, strangers to one another, embarked on a journey that will probably go down in history books.
Willeford and Langendorff chased Kelley until he crashed on a rural highway about five miles into the chase. Langendorff had told reporters that they pulled over and kept their distance from Kelley’s vehicle after he crashed. Willeford got out of Langendorff’s truck and took shelter behind the side of the vehicle while resting his rifle on the truck’s hood aimed at Kelley’s vehicle.
That is when he yelled for him to get out, but not a stir was heard from inside that truck. It is believed this is when Kelley ended his own life with a bullet.
[Featured Image by David J. Phillip/AP Images]
