Leavenworth soldier bridge shooting
Courtesy Fox4KC.com

From the AP:

A soldier stationed in Kansas saved “countless lives” Wednesday when he hit a man with his car as the man was shooting randomly at people on a bridge near an Army base, a police chief said.

One person was injured by the shooter, according to Leavenworth police Chief Patrick Kitchens. That person, also a soldier, was a random victim, Kitchens said.

Officers initially believed they were responding to a road rage incident on the Centennial Bridge that connects Kansas and Missouri not far from Fort Leavenworth, Kitchens said. Instead, they discovered that a man had been using multiple weapons to fire randomly at vehicles. The suspect was trapped under a car, Kitchens said.

Kitchen said the soldier who ran over the gunman had been waiting in traffic when he saw what was happening.

“The soldier intervened by striking the shooter with his vehicle, causing him to be critically injured, but ending the encounter with the active shooter and likely saving countless lives,” Kitchens said.

Both the shooting victim and the suspect were in serious but stable condition in a Kansas City hospital, police said.

Kitchens said no motive for the shooting has been determined. The suspect is from Platte County, Missouri.

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85 COMMENTS

        • Ralph. I got a cousin in Texas that has wrecked 2 pickups, that I know about, killing deer. When she left home both times she was not planning on deer hunting. But shit happens.

          I believe she got a bunch of deer the first time. Folks in Texas tend to drive fast.

      • Sounds like lots of cars around, only one guy with his shit together enough to act. Me, I’d have to consider which car I was in, can’t wreck my pet car, the other could be replaced tomrrow.

    • That was more to avoid having to pay the victims millions of dollars. See if its “work place violence” they don’t fall under the benefits of 9/11. If its “terrorist violence” then they get all kinds of benefits. Just like Trump cutting all the National Guard orders 1 day short of the 9/11 benefits for this Coronavirus mess. Yup Democrats and Republicans both love sticking it to the Military. They sure do love to talk a good game about how much they care for the Military.

  4. Stop defending yourself and others with a car and saving countless lives or the democrats/liberal/socialistic/communist/idiots will try to ban those also.

    • Even money says there will be at least a civil suit and the driver’s auto insurance will be brought in. No coverage for intentional acts though.

      • I always read my policy as no coverage for criminal acts. Justified self defense is not a criminal act.

  6. Obviously we must ban motor vehicles. They are deadly weapons. Besides, a car vs. some guy with a gun is grossly disproportionate. Instead of running over the obviously troubled person with the gun, the driver of the car should have just clipped the guy on the knee, or used the car to gently herd the distressed person into a postion where the man posed no threst, then call 911. The driver was a soldier, not a cop.

    *For those in Rio Linda, this comment is an example of ridicule, mockery.

    • +1 for the reference.

      One of my brothers used to live in Rio Linda many years ago during the same timeframe Rush Limbaugh used it to mock the residents. I’ve teased him about it many times.

      • “One of my brothers used to live in Rio Linda many years ago…”

        Just curious here….

        Does being a current or former resident of Rio Linda leave any identifying marks?

  7. DCU… or DTU… DVU covers them all I guess.

    Great, another shitty Law&Order spinoff.

  8. Man running over an active shooter sure can mess up that grill, hood, both quarter panels, and the alignment (frame).

    A bullet is much cheaper and better even if you have to fire thru your own windscreen.

    • If the soldier was headed onto the base he most likely wasn’t allowed to be armed. Can’t be trusting our soldier with weapons now, they mite use them to defend themselves or others. >snark<

      • Yep. Had to turn ours over to Base security to have them stored for our entire tour at our overseas duty station…..

        • Funny, my family spent 6 years on Okinawa before I retired, and I honestly can’t remember what we did with my guns during that time. Except I do remember that being prohibited from carrying my Python to Desert Storm pissed me off, so I guess we had them with us. Military caught me with that prohibition twice, first time was when I was headed to Vietnam. Found out later I should have carried the Python both times, the prohibition was actually against bringing personal weapons HOME, like M16s and .45 autos. Military didn’t issue many Pythons, I could probably have brought it back with no problem, but who cares? Going to war is what your personal guns are for. For Desert Storm, I carried a 9″ Cold Steel Tanto instead. Vietnam I had to make do with a .38 Spl Combat Masterpiece, but they loaned me a select fire XM177-E2 as well.

  9. The suspect was under the vehicle. Hmmm…was that the front axle where the motor and oil pan are located, or the rear where the nice, hot exhaust pipe & muffler are?

    I think a bullet to the head from a good guy’s gun would be a mercy compared to being pinned under a searing exhaust pipe while waiting who-knows-how-long for LE and EMS to arrive.

    • I hope he kept the engine running.

      “You say it’s hot and burning you? I better not move my vehicle until EMS arrives, you might have a spinal injury…” 🙂

    • “First aid training said to keep the victim warm, so I’ll put the catalytic converter right over you.”

  10. I look forward to seeing the security camera footage of him running over this evil piece of sh#t.
    Give this guy a medal and a promotion.

  12. Why do they always need to find a motive. The media always needs answers. Here is one: Sick of life, crazy, wanted to die and take other with him or cause chaos at the very least before he goes. End of story. Nothing new here. But good on the guy(s?) who stopped it for laying him out with their vehicle. I wonder what kind of vehicle it was because it must not’ve had much ground clearance, or he just didn’t try to maneuver any further once striking the shooter. Apparently never seen Zombieland. Double Tap.

    • “… Sick of life, crazy, wanted to die and take other with him or cause chaos at the very least before he goes.”

      Those are all motives :0

      Understanding motive is useful. Gives law enforcement clues on locating accomplices, being prepared for future attacks. Gives prosecutors clues on how to present the case.

      • Right, I understand those are motives. I was more focused on the media, not the investigation done by police and such. Media motives are not the same. As in: “White man shoots at black motorists” once they discover a note with something so vague that contains a single statement it becomes a motive or an entire way of life for the person in question. They always want to look inside the killers mind for something that fits their narrative. The issues are all the same and generally mental health related or some form of anger issues, which can also be traced back to mental health or instability of some sorts.

    • Years back I was considering putting a brush guard on an off-roading/mountains WRX (No, not lifted, that’s stupid talk. Don’t even suggest it. Learn to fucking drive.)

      Talking about it with a friend he asked what I thought it would do to the front suspension to add that kind of weight up front. I said “I dunno, but if I was to have a really bad day I think the kids at a street crossing are probably fucked no matter what”.

      Now I kinda want to put a brush guard on anther WRX…

      • Just go with a full on bumper guard style one. Brush guards can still push into the radiator pretty easily. I rammed some vehicles on my first deployment… it’s a big learning curve lol.

  13. Drive. Bump, bump. Reverse. Bump, bump. Drive. Bump, bump. Reverse. Bump, bump.

    ZZ Top or…… on the sound system.

    You know you’ve done your job when the first responders puke at the sight.

  14. Was it a “high capacity” assault car with a “shoulder thing that goes up?”

    Anyhoo, good on the Soldier.

  17. A weapon is only a weapon when it’s used as a weapon. Car, gun, hammer, shovel… all tools for different uses, but capable of being used as a weapon. Excellent play. Thanks to the driver, and warmest regards.

      • I’d wear the dents and damage like a badge of honor. Who knows if he’ll get a medal or award or whatever they do….a letter of commendation perhaps, but I wouldn’t fix the car. I’d treasure that damage!

  18. Wonder if he had a Dodge pickup? Obviously he did not Dodge it, he ‘Ram’ med it.

  19. I’ll paraphrase Col. Jeff Cooper. “If you do something you may be injured. You may even be killed. But, do something.”

  20. Have to say, the perfect response of his buddies would be to hold a car wash fund raiser.

    Everybody put $5 in the jar and help him wash that scumbag off his vehicle. Then go out for a good steak dinner!

    Anyway, good job, quick thinking, can’t think of a thing he could have done better.

  21. This is a perfect example of how the warrior is the weapon, not the gun.
    A proactive and adaptive mindset can never be legislated or banned.
    Excellent work driver. Keep on truckin’

  23. Cars are an underrated weapon by many.

    If someone starts shooting at me on a street I’d much rather run them down than try to play Wyatt Earp.

    • You’re a bit late to the party. Terrorists have already used vehicles for mass killings. Remember the one in France with a truck? Killed more than the average mass-shooter incident.

      • Killed more than most ANY mass shooting incident, short of military style attacks on schoolchildren! 83, wasn’t it?

  26. . The Army guy is no hero, he just dropped his cell phone, spilled his soda reaching for it and floored the car, coulda happened to anybody.

    • If a .45 ACP annihilates the soul, a vehicle impact would blast it into an alternate universe.

  30. One mind, many weapons. What does a vehicle double-tap look like? Drive, reverse, drive, stop. Two to the chest has new meaning. Well done Soldier.

  31. I heard the car he used was fully automatic!

    It may have even been one of those new .9 speeds.

  33. I wonder if he was stupid enough to run in a straight line like they do in the movies….

  35. I live in Leavenworth, KS. and work on the Ft. Leavenworth base. The bridge is used by a lot of military personnel going to and leaving the base. Personnel entering the base are not allowed to conceal carry so I would assume all this brave soldier had was his car. Very smart if you ask me.

  36. These are awesome comments, keep ’em coming!

    I’ll second the Soldier’s Medal idea. Find that guy an NCO who knows how to write up the appropriate form.

  37. What a sad commentary on our society when an Officer trained in active shooter responses needs a paragraph telling us he just wanted to get home safe and mow his grass.
    I wish he would have said, “I saw it unfold, told my wife to hold my beer because we don’t dial 911, then I ran over the son of a bitch with my Silverado 3500. When I saw I had him under the front differential I backed up a little and ran over him 4 more times”.

  38. Funny, if the shooter had succeeded in killing a bunch of people his name would be all over the headlines for weeks, but we can’t bother to identify by name the person who stopped him before that happened. Who’s responsible for creating these people?

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