Texas Church Hero Speaks Out About Attack, Suspect Identified By Police

Jack Wilson, the heroic armed citizen and church security member at West Freeway Church of Christ who stopped Sunday’s attack within seconds of an armed suspect opening fire, is now speaking out about what happened. In an interview with Fox 4 in Dallas, Wilson says the suspect drew the attention of church security from the moment he walked in.

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“He had on a fake beard and a fake wig with a cap on his head and a long coat. From where I was standing I could see his right hand at pretty much all times. Could not see his left hand. And apparently with the shotgun he had… he had it underneath his long coat.”

Wilson says after firing two rounds and hitting two of his fellow parishioners, the suspect then turned towards the front of the church. Wilson says at that moment he got a clear shot of the suspect, and he took it.

“I don’t feel I killed an individual. I killed evil. That’s how I’m approaching it. That’s how I’m processing it,” he said. “I don’t see myself as a hero. I see myself as doing what needed to be done to take out the evil threat.”

Wilson told reporters that the security team had eyes on the suspect from the get go, including video surveillance. Wilson also says that 67-year old Richard White, a fellow security member, was drawing his firearm when the suspect shot him. The suspect then turned his gun on 64-year old Anton “Tony”Wallace. Wilson says his gun was drawn by that point, but he had to wait a second in order to get a clear shot.

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That one shot ended the attack by the suspect, who was now been identified by police. I won’t name him here at Bearing Arms, but NBC 5 in Dallas describes him as a 43-year old man with a criminal record.

The FBI is working to identify the shooter’s motive. Matthew DeSarno, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Dallas field office, said the gunman was “relatively transient,” but had roots in the area.

[The killer] had a criminal record in Tarrant County including charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in 2009 and theft of property in 2013.

[The killer] also was arrested in September 2016 for possession of an illegal weapon in Linden, New Jersey, after he was found taking pictures outside an oil refinery, according to news reports at the time…

At the time of his New Jersey arrest, [he] also had a warrant for his arrest in Oklahoma for aggravated assault, mycentraljersey.com reported.

Several of those arrests would have been for felony charges, though it’s unclear if the killer was actually convicted on any of the charges, which would have prohibited him from legally owning a firearm. It certainly looks like the criminal justice system had plenty of opportunities to deal with this guy before he opened fire in a church, however.

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This guy had been bad news for a long time, but his criminal behavior was allowed to escalate until he took the lives of innocent people worshipping in their church. No gun control law in the world would have changed that, but if gun control advocates had their way, he would have been able to continue his rampage for several more minutes until police arrived. Thank God that Jack Wilson and the volunteers with the church security team were armed and able to prevent the loss of any more lives.

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