Texas Church Shooter Stopped by Armed Church Heroes

Screenshot from live feed from West Freeway Church of Christ, text and arrows by Dean Weingarten

U.S.A.-(Ammoland.com)- On 29 December, at about 10:50 a.m. a masked attacker, who had sat in the service at the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, close to Fort Worth Texas, opened fire, first on an armed church member, then on an unarmed congregant. The attacker is shot by another armed congregant. The action was over in six seconds.

By the 35 second mark, there were six to seven armed congregants at the scene. There was no crossfire. There was no mistaken identity shooting. Only three or four shots were fired. Two or three by the attacker, one by the defender.

The action was all captured on live stream video from the church.

Link to video on Bitchute

The first two shots fired by the attacker were from a few feet. The defender, a cool pistol shot under fire, was 12-14 yards away, using different scaling assumptions from the video.

The attacker may have fired a third shot as he was hit. It may have occurred by reflex at being shot. A flash on the wall, at the time he was hit, could indicate a third shot, which did not hit anyone. The pump shotgun appeared to be pointing toward the pulpit at that time.

Police officers praised the armed congregants for their heroic defense against the attacker. From Dallas Morning News:

“I would like to point out that we have a couple of heroic parishioners,” Williams said. “Our hearts are going out to them and their families as well.”

He said their quick actions had saved the lives of nearly 250 other churchgoers.

Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Wayborn applauded the armed congregants:

“Today evil walked boldly among us,” he said. “But let me remind you, good people raised up and stopped it before it got worse.”

White Settlement Police Chief Bevering photo by Dean Weingarten

From my experience, serving as voluntary armed church security in Yuma, Arizona, it appears the volunteer security team saw the attacker as a potential threat, due to his outlandish costume and behavior.

The security team was watching him but was not quite fast enough to stop friendly casualties.

The first to go down had drawn his pistol when he saw the shotgun, but the pistol was about 45 degrees from horizontal when he was shot at point blank range with what appears to be a pump shotgun. Then the attacker shoots an unarmed usher who is holding what appears to be a collection plate. The attacker is backing away from the usher, toward the pulpit, and starts to bring the pump shotgun to bear on the pulpit when he is shot by the second armed parishioner, about five seconds after the first armed congregant starts to draw.

The pistol shooter started to draw close to the same time as the first armed congregant but needs an extra second to aim and fire. It was a shot that took skill and grace under fire. He is in a classic two-handed hold, clearly using the sights. In the video, you can see the slide cycling on his semi-automatic pistol, after the shot.

More details will be revealed during the next few hours or days. The attacker and the armed defender who was shot died quickly. The wounded parishioner made it alive to the hospital but expired within a few hours.

Your correspondent was only 5.7 miles away when the incident occurred, and arrived less than an hour after the shooting.  There was little information to be gained at the scene.  The press was kept about 100 yards from the Church property. The presser by the police did not allow questions.

Later releases revealed the attacker had a history with the police and a connection of some kind to the Fort Worth area.

This is another mass killing stopped by an armed defender.

This one was recorded live, on video.  It dispels many of the myths about voluntary armed defenders. Consider how different the outcome would have been in New Zealand if six or seven members of the mosque had been armed.

The response by the gun culture has been swift.  Mary Bull, of Benbrook Lakeside, has offered concealed handgun classes to all church groups for $20 a person. She is a retired police officer.


About Dean Weingarten:Dean Weingarten

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.

27 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
JFCrosby

“Police officers praised the armed congregants for their heroic defense against the attacker.” In New Jersey, New York, California, Connecticut, and Virginia they would have been arrested and charged with a crime.

Thank God for the reasonableness of law enforcement in Texas.

gregs

and the death count would have been much higher.

Deplorable Bill

It is a sad thing when violence toward Christians is so bad we have to have a security detail in Church. I was on the detail at Church A and I run a detail at Church B. At Church A, we had video for 360 around the buildings and most rooms inside. We had SEVERAL, incognito, hard to spot, trained, firearm qualified, security guards as well as lookouts. We had people inside, dispersed throughout the sanctuary and doing routes outside. We all had radio gear, even to the Sunday School/nursery rooms. We have code words to signal trouble, and different… Read more »

Pastor Roy

Very well said. As the pastor of a small church in the Midwest, I wholeheartedly agree with you. And I believe that being “civilly disobedient” is mandatory for all who value liberty and the Constitution. I have carried into many places where it is not “legal” to do so … federal buildings, businesses with “No Guns Allowed” signs in the window, hospitals, etc. Because, as you said, lives are precious to me as they are precious to God. When Jesus sent His disciples out into the world, He told them that if they didn’t have a sword, they should sell… Read more »

Will Flatt

There’s a meme for being armed biblically, with a modern twist.

Finnky

@WF – Can I have permission to blatantly copy our meme? Regardless of one’s religious perspective – this is just too good!

Will Flatt

Sure, copying is encouraged!! I love seeing memes I’ve made go viral online. Here’s another to justify copying.

Deplorable Bill

Luke 22:36. This is the LORD HIMSELF talking, mandating ALL to be armed with the assault weapon of the day. There is simply no higher authority. Our constitution, bill of rights, amendments and even the declaration are based on sound, righteous BIBLICAL law, commandments, mandated and principals. Right and wrong, good and evil are defined BIBLICALLY and anything else is less than righteous and sometimes, absolutely evil.

Arm up, carry on.

Mac

This is proof that the 2nd Amendment works, but you can be sure that the liberals will not see it that way and will twist it any way they can!

Arizona

This entire event was over in 6 seconds because the government didn’t interfere with citizens’ right to bear arms. Imagine how many parishioners would have died if they had to wait for police to show up? Or if the church was a “gun free” zone…

Vern

Those on the left haven’t got a clue that by disarming law-abiding citizens will leave them totally unarmed against those they are exempting from their anti-gun laws, the criminals and gangs. Those who think they are above the law will always work very hard to bring all others they look down on to kneel at their feet. Disarming law-abiding people is the first thing the crazies always do before they bring their reign of terror into full existence. People in churches who know the scripture and know what is coming, the evidence is in full view, are doing what the… Read more »

Quatermain

Keep calm and carry. Excellent article but one wonders why the shooters ID has been so long in being revealed.

tetejaun

From what I understand, the media does not like to tell the identity because 99% of the time the shooter is a democrat or muslim.

Vern

When you look at Antifa and Muslim terrorists, you can’t tell them apart.

Vern

The PA and Hamas reward their shooters for killing and wounding Jews in Israel, I fully believe the left is doing the same thing in this country. Birds of a feather, Ya know?

Will Flatt

Perfect example of STAY STRAPPED OR GET CLAPPED!

Will Flatt

Careful or the MSM koolaid-guzzling fudds will call you a conspiracy theory nutter. LOL 😉

Will Flatt

ROFL!! 😀

Finnky

@WF – even non MSM k-g-f will likely just drop the conspiracy theory part.

Finnky

Jack Wilson insists he is not a hero. Thus I chose to give him higher accolades and henceforth will refer to him as a Typical Texas Gun Nut. Wear the label proudly.

Signed – A less competent gun nut.

Jb86

The reaction of the armed security team to eliminate the threat was awesome! Not to take anything away from them by any means but looking at it from a learning point of view, the reaction to the event can be considered Right of bang. The incident itself would be Bang. Staying Left of bang would have been to stop the threat before the event even happened. The guy is clearly an anomaly and has drawn the attention the security team before he even drew the shotgun, when you have the gut feeling something isn’t right, that’s the time to act.… Read more »

Bill

Well, first I wholly agree with you that preemptive action would have saved two lives but the communist crybabies and their teammates in the mockingbird media require that people die before anything can be done to end an attack. In other words shootings cant be thwarted but only ended, otherwise someone would/could have their rights violated, plus, they wouldn’t get what they need out of these incidents, dead people to help further their agenda. And yes, these people are just that damn sick. I bet they are just hating it that this person was stopped and yes, they are that… Read more »

JH1961

In talking with others, it appears that far too many church security teams are discouraged from ‘interrupting services, or making a scene’. This is the ‘Achilles Heel’ of church security, in my professional opinion.

Oldman

AS always, the main stream media is trying to keep a lid on the good guy with a gun thing. The only two ‘honest’ reportings of this have been on Fox news and CBS. All the others seem to be bent on making it go away. Beto is obviously retarded. He thinks it’s possible to confiscate firearms from Patriots. If they try it there will be a lot of blood spilt.

ALL GUN LAWS ARE INFRINGEMENTS

Armed citizens on private property should not a special Gov permission slip to exercise their god given rights!

gooder12

My main questions for years and by years I mean I started The Shooting Sports at age 12 or 5 years ago, and I started carrying part time 48 years ago, and DC every day for well over 20 years, which has always been with one major concern….. I hate to ask Why, but Why are we not allowed to carry in almost every Government Building which includes local, country, State, Federal. Why??? Now I have been An Independent all these years, so I am asking Both The Left and The Right Why? I am waiting for Con Carry as… Read more »

Vern

The party of the blind is on the left, there is no longer any middle ground.