‘We did what anyone would have done’: ‘Heroic’ armed citizens who shot dead Oklahoma restaurant shooter speak out, as the NRA says they prove only ‘good guys with guns’ stop mass shootings
Juan Carlos Nazario, 35, and Bryan Whittle, 39, stopped the Oklahoma shooter
Shooter Alex Tilghman, 28, shot at random into a restaurant on Thursday night
Nazario and Whittle were nearby and raced to their cars to retrieve their guns
Nazario fired two shots at Tilghman when he refused to drop his weapon
A female military veteran and two young girls were shot in the attack
Natalie Will was grazed on her upper arm, while daughter Syniah was worse off
The 12-year-old had two holes in her bowel and had part of her colon removed
A 14-year-old friend of Natalie’s other daughter may lose use of her hand
Alex Speegle was shot in the collarbone, upper arm and bullet hit a nerve in hand
Tilghman was licensed to carry a gun as he was an armed security guard
The NRA have said Nazario and Whittle were two ‘good guys with a gun’
They say stricter gun control would have prevented them from stopping shooter
By HANNAH MOORE
DAILYMAIL.COM
26 May 2018
Two armed civilians who helped take down a man who had shot two young girls and a mother of two in a packed out restaurant on Thursday night have been identified.
Juan Carlos Nazario, 35, and Bryan Whittle, 39, were standing outside Louie’s Grill and Bar on Thursday about 6.30pm when the two men heard gunshots.
They did not know each other, but both men had guns in their cars, and immediately sprung into action to take down the shooter.
Nazario works as a security guard, and told KOCO 5 he ‘just did what I was trained to do to neutralize the situation’. His Facebook account suggests he is a devoted father-of-two.
Whittle has been in the National Guard for about 20 years, and served in Afghanistan. When asked why he decided to step in during the shooting, the married man said he ‘just did what anyone would have done to help’.
Nazario was the one to fire the fatal shot, USA Today reported, but says he does not think of himself as a hero.
He said when he found shooter Alex Tilghman, 28, he told him to drop the gun multiple times before firing two shots at him and watching the man ‘fall to the ground’.
‘I just can’t understand being called a hero when someone’s life was taken,’ he said.
‘I just did what I had to do. I’m very glad no innocent lives were taken but ultimately, there was a life taken.’
The National Rifle Association said in a tweet on Friday the shooting of Tilghman was an example of ‘how the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.’
The organization said it hopes the incident serves as a ‘wake-up call’ for Republican Gov. Mary Fallin, who recently vetoed a so-called constitutional carry bill that would have allowed adults to carry firearms without a license or training in Oklahoma.
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