It started around 1:30 p.m. Thursday across the street from the courthouse in Tyler, Texas. David Hernandez Arroyo Sr., 43, wearing a bulletproof vest and a military flak jacket and reportedly armed with a Norinco Mak-90, a variation of the AK-47, opened fire. His ex-wife, Maribel Estrada, was killed along with another, and others were wounded.
Here's where the story gets truly remarkable because. A brave citizen with a handgun stepped up to the plate and performed heroically. The witnesses described the scene, as reported in an article titled Diners Eyewitness to Horrific Sight in the Tyler Morning Telegraph of 2/24/04:
Rick Wilbanks, a Tyler lawyer, witnessed all but the first few shots of the event while eating lunch at Don Juan's.
He saw another man with a gun, later identified as Mark Wilson, a former shooting range owner, hiding behind the gunman's parked truck.
"The shooter couldn't see him, but I could see both of them," Wilbanks said. "When the shooter stopped to reload, the guy behind the pickup came up and fired."
Wilbanks said he thought to himself, "I hope he is accurate."
"He hit him twice, he hit him bad, but he didn't kill him," he said.
The gunman, David Arroyo, was wearing body armor.
Wilbanks saw Arroyo turn around and fire at Wilson. Then the shooter got in his truck to leave.
"He did it unhurriedly and drove off slow. I could have run and kept up with him," Wilbanks said. "I think he was expecting to be killed by the cops, but no one but Wilson took a shot at him. That bugs me."
Wilbanks went to Wilson's aid after the gunman left the scene.
Mark Allen Wilson, 52, and Arroyo's exwife were pronounced dead.
Arroyo got in his pickup truck and drove off while officers gave chase. Bullets may have disabled the pickup truck, and Arroyo got out and fired at the officer. They shot back killing him as he tried to get back into the truck. The truck moved forward, and an officer stopped it with his police car. The photos, from the video camera of a law enforcement vehicle, show Arroyo standing beside the truck then lying on the street. Source: Downtown Became a Killing Zone in the Tyler Morning Telegraph of 2/25/04.
I'm sure somewhere in the news reports there will be statements that the police were "outgunned." Nonsense. It was the body armor not the gun. "Two to the body and one to the head" is the mantra in handgun defense circles as body armor always has to be considered.
But, that shouldn't take anything away from Mark Wilson. He was a true hero. A brave man. He could have run away, but he didn't. It took real courage to step into that situation, and he deserves to be honored for his bravery. Hats off to you Mr. Wilson. May you rest in peace, and may we be better citizens because of your example.
Update: 3/1/05 - Check out Musings of the Geek with a .45 who has photos from Mark Wilson's memorial service. And, the same blog has a nice rebuttal to an anti-gun letter to the editor, here.
And, here's a link to a KLTV's website where you can see a replay of newscasts from the scene and the video of the shooting from the courthouse cameras.
A huge thank you to Katherine in Houston for the links.
Followup: 3/6/05: John Lott, Jr., in a Fox News article, makes some points about the main stream media coverage of this case. He says that there are "2 million defensive gun uses each year," but main stream media, for the most part, neglect to tell stories about how citizens protect themselves and others with handguns.
And, about this case, he says:
Seems like pretty standard media coverage. But what makes this case different is that 21 percent of the news stories actually mentioned that a citizen licensed to carry a concealed weapon used his gun to try and help stop the attack. [emphasis added]
Thanks again to Katherine, a concealed handgun license holder in Houston, for the link.
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