School shootings are becoming all too commonplace, and yesterday there was a deadly shooting in a Washington state High School.
One student was tragically killed while several others were injured – but it would’ve been even worse if not for the actions of several brave heroes, including a school custodian who seems to have confronted the gunman in spite of having no weapon of his own.
According to KHQ:
The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office told us about a man who stopped the shooting spree. Our partners at the Spokesman-Review that person is Freeman High School custodian Joe Bowen.
The Sheriff’s Office says Bowen confronted the gunman and ordered him to stop firing and surrender his weapon. The gunman did pause long enough for a school resource officer to take him into custody.
According to Bowen’s Facebook page, he started working at Freeman in 2015, and has a wife and children. He put all that on the line Wednesday to protect the students of Freeman High School.
Thank you, Mr. Bowen, for your selfless actions.
It should be noted that the student who died was trying to do the exact same thing – confront the gunman and get him to stop – brave actions that bought others time but ultimately ended up costing the student their life. Bowen was willing to suffer the same fate for the sake of others.
Posted by Joe Bowen on Monday, October 14, 2013
According tot he Associated Press, the suspect was allegedly “obsessed” with school shootings seen in the media. They describe the scene:
“He went to his next weapon,” Knezovich said. “A student walked up to him, engaged him, and that student was shot. That student did not survive.”
The sheriff said the shooter fired more rounds down the hallway, striking the other students, before a school custodian approached the shooter and ordered him to surrender, Knezovich said.
Knezovich called it a courageous act that prevented further bloodshed.
The sheriff said a deputy who works as a school resource officer arrived shortly thereafter and took the shooter into custody.
Elisa Vigil, a 14-year-old freshman, told The Associated Press that she saw one male student shot in the head who janitors covered with a cloth and another female student wounded in the back.