A second armed male guard couldn't bring himself either.
But a female armed security guard who said "I was asking the Holy Spirit to guide me the entire time" was the one who saved all of those lives.
Hooray for pistol packin' dames!
Larry Bourbonnais, a combat-tested Vietnam veteran, said it was the bravest thing he's ever seen.
Bourbonnais, who was among those shot by a gunman Sunday at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, watched as a security guard, a woman who has not yet been named, calmly returned fire and killed the shooter.
"She just started walking toward the gunman firing the whole way," said Bourbonnais, who was shot in the arm. "She was just yelling 'Surrender,' walking and shooting the whole time."
Bourbonnais, 59, had just finished up a hamburger in the cafeteria on the sprawling church campus when he heard gunfire, he recalled.
Bourbonnais headed in the direction of the shots as frightened people ran past him looking to escape to safety.
"Where's the shooter? Where's the shooter?" Bourbonnais kept yelling, he recalled.
Near an entryway in the church, Bourbonnais came upon the gunman and an armed male church security guard who was there with his gun drawn but not firing, he said.
Bourbonnais said he pleaded with the armed guard to give him his weapon.
"Give me your handgun. I've been in combat, and I'm going to take this guy out," Bourbonnais recalled telling the guard. "He kept yelling, 'Get behind me! Get behind me!' He wouldn't hand me his weapon, but he wouldn't do anything."
There was an additional armed security guard there, another man, who also didn't fire, Bourbonnais said.
Bourbonnais yelled at the gunman to draw his attention, he said.
"First, I called him 'Coward' then I called him 'S---head' " Bourbonnais said. "I probably shouldn't have been saying that in church."
That's when the shooter pointed one of his guns at Bourbonnais and fired, he said.
Bourbonnais ducked behind a hollow, decorative pillar and was hit in the arm by a bullet and fragments of the pillar.
At about that moment, a female guard with a drawn handgun turned a corner and walked toward the gunman and yelled "Surrender!" Bourbonnais said.
The gunman pointed a handgun at the woman and fired three shots, Bourbonnais said. She returned fire and just kept walking toward the gunman pressing off round after round.
The female guard fired off about a dozen shots.
After the gunman went down, Bourbonnais asked the woman, who has only been identified as a volunteer security guard with the church, how she remained so calm and focused.
Bourbonnais said she replied:
"I was asking the Holy Spirit to guide me the entire time."
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
WOW! I got chills when I read that report.
Whattagal this woman is! Cool and calm under fire. I had no idea the perp shot directly at her three times...and missed! The Lord sure put a hedge around this courageous woman.
A second armed male guard couldn't bring himself either.
But a female armed security guard who said "I was asking the Holy Spirit to guide me the entire time" was the one who saved all of those lives.
Hooray for pistol packin' dames!
Ping to #402 devolve
This woman is something else. I feel God had her that at the right time for the right job! I have been saying for years that more women should be armed! A big thank you to what ever man taught her to shoot a gun!
Thanks for posting this.
An earlier article said the female security guard was the only one with a gun. I wonder if Bourbonnais only saw their holsters and thought both male guards had guns when they didn't.
Which is why the male guards weren't shooting back.
Fabulous article!