Construction crew heroes take down school shooter

[Liberty Belle]

THE HEROES WHO ALLEGEDLY TOOK DOWN A GUNMAN (NBC San Diego)

Brendan L. O'Rourke is accused of firing at Kelly Elementary School students and grazing two girls with bullets

Dressed in black, carrying a 357 magnum, pockets full of ammunition and a gas can, a man walked onto a playground at Kelly Elementary School and emptied his gun into a crowd of children, according to witnesses. The bullets grazed the arms of two little girls, aged 6 and 7. Miraculously no one was killed, thanks, in part, to the heroic actions of several men.

Steven Kane, Mario Contreras and Carlos Partida were working in a construction area Friday when they heard shots and kids screaming. They ran around the building and saw a gunman, who police later identified as Brendan L. O'Rourke, 41, firing rounds as children ran for their lives.

<snip>

Kane and Contreras chased the suspect over the playground fence. Partida jumped into his own vehicle and drove to where the suspect had parked. "I hit him with my truck," Partida said. He knocked the suspect to the ground and the others held him down.

A fourth good Samaritan, Scott Chandler, was repairing a Jet Ski in his driveway when he heard two loud bangs and saw children running and screaming….Chandler, a professional surfer, approached the crowd after realizing the workers were pinning down the man.“He took a pretty good beating. I think the construction guys were wearing steel towed boots,” Chandler said.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local-beat/The-Heroes-Who-Took-Down-a-Gunman--104634754.html#ixzz11vQyTLsk

[opihimoimoi]

1. Hard hat justice works too....

[lpbk2713]

2. It seems like there has been a lot of violent crimes against children lately.

Or has the media been emphasizing this sort of news more than usual lately? :shrug:

[K8-EEE]

3. But did the kids pay a fee to get rescued?

Were they on "the list??" Hey TN fire guys, these are what heroes look like.

[REP]

4. "steel-towed boots"? Ai. My work shoes are steel-toed.

Copy edit fail.

[Liberty Belle]

5. The untold story is how thin emergency crews were stretched that day.

I know people who listen to scanners. The same day there was a major gas leak and a mercury spill incident elsewhere in town, as well as some accidents.

One of the accidents couldn't get an engine crew and the large-line gas break initially got a response of no haz-mat crews available.

I'm guessing some of the emergency folks were tied up in Carlsbad at the school shooting, but none-the-less this may be a symptom of the brownouts San Diego continues to have at its fire stations despite a little boy dying (choked on a gumball) here last month. The fire station next door was closed due to budget brownouts and it took 15 minutes or so for one to arrive from farther away.

Good thing for the kids these construction workers intervened; doesn't sound like the SWAT team had time to get there yet.

I'm also wondering if the construction guys with Latino names were undocumented immigrants or here legally -- people complain a lot about undocumented workers but I'll bet if they saved some kids' lives it might change a few opinions even among the bigots.