Shootings
and KIM COBB
FORT WORTH -- For an instant, their eyes locked, the kid's and the killer's, then the killer blinked, then died.
"I've thought about it," 19-year-old Jeremiah Neitz said Friday, "and I think I got to him. I don't know how, but I think that's why what happened happened."
After shooting up a youth rally at the Wedgwood Baptist Church Wednesday night, killing seven and wounding seven, 47-year-old Larry Gene Ashbrook calmly blew his own brains out, and the last voice he heard and the last face he saw were Neitz's.
For a few long, agonizing moments, they had danced a strange ballet -- Ashbrook, spewing profanity with two guns blazing, and Neitz, a hard-luck kid trying to find his way back to God, calmly challenging him.
It ended with a surprising abruptness that may have saved many lives.
"He stood up. I really didn't expect him to do that," said Adam Hammond, youth director at the Southwayside Baptist Church, which Neitz attends. "I don't even know if Jeremiah realized what he had done."
When the shooting rampage began about 7 p.m., Neitz was standing in a hallway in the church, about 2 feet from a window into the sanctuary. He could hear the band playing inside and some of the 150 or so young people singing along.
Then he heard a loud "pop" and the simultaneous shattering of glass. Stepping into the sanctuary, he saw Ashbrook, wearing a black jacket and black baseball cap, standing in the aisle, a .380-caliber pistol in one hand and a 9 mm semiautomatic in the other, firing randomly into the crowd.
From 5 feet away, Neitz said, "Sir, you don't have to be doing this."
"Shut the hell up, you (expletive) Christian," Ashbrook snapped. "Your religion sucks."
Though there may be obvious comparisons to Cassie Bernall, the 17-year-old Columbine High School student who stood up for her faith and was killed during a shooting rampage in April, Nietz said he was motivated more by anger that his friends were being shot than by courage or faith.
He continued to talk to the gunman, who responded with more gunshots and obscenities.
Hammond, who had attended the rally with some youths from his church, was on the floor beside a pew, tugging on Neitz's pants leg, telling him to sit down and get out of danger. He could see the gunman's feet as he paced back and forth.
Ashbrook emptied his guns into the crowd and loaded fresh clips.
"This religion is bull----," he shouted.
"You need religion in your life," Neitz told him, flinching as the gunman squeezed off more rounds.
The banter was brief, but, Neitz said, seemed an eternity. Then, with blood spattered on the pews and soaking the carpet and the odor of a spent pipe bomb hanging in the sanctuary, the two stood face to face for one last time.
Neitz described the killer's expression as pure rage. He still does not know why Ashbrook didn't shoot him.
"His jacket was bulging with clips," Nietz said, "He could have killed a lot more people."
Instead, Ashbrook slumped onto a pew, as though weary from the carnage. He raised an arm and pointed a gun at Neitz.
"Shoot me if you want to," the teen-ager said. "I know where I'm going when I die. What about you?"
Ashbrook, a troubled loner described by neighbors as hostile and paranoid, spat out one last obscenity and slowly turned the gun toward his own head and pulled the trigger.
From his position on the floor, unable to see what was happening, Hammond feared the worst.
"I thought he shot Jeremiah," he said. By the time he had pulled himself to his feet, Neitz was already trying to comfort the wounded.
"No doubt about it," Hammond said. "I think he was there for a reason. I don't know what it was. I don't know if he made the man think. He had six more clips in his pocket."
Neitz, who moved to Fort Worth from California four years ago, became involved in the Southwayside Baptist Church through friends at school. However, a troubled home life and brushes with the law had pulled him away from the church, Hammond said, and he had only recently returned to the fold.
Neitz said he had dropped out of school to support his pregnant fiancée. He is working toward a GED and, with the help of the church, had found a job where he can learn to be an electrician.
He thinks he might have influenced Ashbrook to end the killing and said he hasn't thought much about the risk he took.
"I just did what I had to do," he said.
He went home from the church Wednesday night and had no trouble sleeping.
"I passed out about 11:30," he said. "Just passed out."
Surely goodness and mercy will follow him all the days of his life.
The christian angle comes out on freerepublic. Thanks.
There's no telling what this young man has faced before. The fact that he is working to support his pregnant girl friend says volumes about him. Here's a person who evidently takes responsibility for his actions. Wish there were a gadzillion more like him.
Can you post a link or webpage please?
Houston Chronicle Answered my own question.
Contrary to popular belief, we have a lot of good kids out there. Let's keep fighting for them.
"I thought he shot Jeremiah," he said. By the time he had pulled himself to his feet, Neitz was already trying to comfort the wounded.
Tears are rolling down my cheeks at the mental image of this dear boy facing down a killer, then taking care of victims.
Another hero, another with the courage to stand up for his faith. And, think of how his faith was strengthened!
Typing thru tears is not easy, is it? I, too, am moved to tears by this young man's bravery. Actually, I can't quite stop crying.
There.
< /sobs>
Sometimes a man must do something, and be willing to sacrifice his own life in doing so, to test themselves against evil. Those that survive the experience are changed, and they change the lives of thousands around them as well. Bravo to this young man.
How long will we wait to hear this story of personal courage from a "real" news network?
This young man deserves recognition. But, my guess is he is getting it from the families of the survivors which probably means more to him anyway... and, a "Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant" from the Lord. That would mean more than any fleeting accolade from the Clinton News Network or Peter, Dan and Tom!
I just finished a morning transcribing CNN. They had a few reports on the Fort Worth shooting. Needless to say, they had nothing about this young man's heroism. In fact, I don't believe they said anything about Ashbrook's anti-Christian motivation.
"Shoot me if you want to," the teen-ager said. "I know where I'm going when I die. What about you?"
I suspect that Ashbrook, at that very moment, did know.
The christian angle comes out on freerepublic. Thanks.
The fact that a lot of the kids in the sanctuary had attended the "Meet You At The
Flagpole" event earlier that day got mentioned only a couple of times when the story
broke. The journalists must have killed that angle when they found it is supported by
James Dobson's "Focus on the Family" and other conservative religious groups.
No disrespect to this young man, but why not charge the SOB? Why are so many people passive when faced with a violent threat? If a couple of people had jumped the sociopathic killer as soon as he began his rampage perhaps all seven lives could have been spared.
If this ever happens to me I hope I don't just stand there and try to "reason" with a madman. But maybe that is all I would do too.
See the problem here is that if guns truly do kill people -19-year-old Jeremiah Neitz would be dead right now. But it was the heart of the Gunman that was doing the killing and Neitz spoke directly to him/it and it stopped...hardly an angle ANY TV news media wishes to tell.
Thank you for posting this.
It's a moving story. It also confirms what the newspapers and other media have tried to hide, that the shooter was filled with anti-Christian hatred. And where did he get this hatred? From bill clinton and the left-wing media.
If someone had shot up a synagogue like this, you can bet it would have been reported differently. Christians and "extreme right" hate groups would have been blamed even before the dust settled, and any small sign of anti-semitism would have been hugely publicized. Same thing if it had been a gay bar. But not if it's a Christian church.
Yes, there is left-wing hate speech as well as right wing hate speech. The difference is that left-wing hate speech has become the party line of our dominant establishment in the schools, the media, Hollywood, and government. Most fair-thinking conservatives would repudiate David Duke, but the left-wingers would never condemn anyone on their side no matter how much hatred and divisiveness they preached. They do it all the time, non-stop.
Interesting question. I wonder. Perhaps in this circumstance it was a matter of, "Whatever you resist, persists". Standing up and remaining calm may have been the bravest and best response. Weren't there reports that the killer was calm and deliberate?
I was also very moved by this story. I don't think that the main stream media would want to promote a story like this, after all they can't have people believing in such a thing as the "Holy Spirit" can they.
Will Larry King invite this brave young man on his show??? Will the media even bother to report this story?
Thanks for this inspiring post.
From 5 feet away, Neitz said, "Sir, you don't have to be doing this."
Although it is easy to say from behind my keyboard, if he was this close he should have tackled him instead of talking to him
This is not under the guidelines a "hate crime", but if one of the victims was gay or other than Christians the news and the government would be all over this. DOES ANYONE SEE WHERE THE CHRISTIANS FIT IN THIS NEW WORLD ORDER FOR AMERICA THAT THE LIBERALS ARE CRAMMING DOWN OUR THROATS.
The single gay that was killed got all kinds of coverage and unenless media hype...Christians are expendable under the Clinton monarchy.
This is certainly a brave young man but I couldn't help thinking (and this may be a little off topic) that if I was in that situation I would be wishing I had a gun with me. I think I would not "resist evil with evil" if it were only my life at stake but if someone was mowing down my friends I could kill them without any moral ambiguity(sp?).
Socialists don't believe in God, they only believe in themselves.
"Although it is easy to say from behind my keyboard, if he was this close he should have tackled him instead of talking to him"
Very easy to say, very hard to do. I was about this young man's age when I had a gun pointed at my head. You have to be there to understand it. I did not have his courage or faith.
I do think God helped him, and I think he did exactly the right thing.
It is a shame that most people will never hear this story. If the kid did the same thing in a gay bar, he would have been at the White House already. (and in a totally cynical thought, the Governor of Texas should recognize him)
God has blessed this young man with a quiet courage. I think he will do well in life.
I just finished a morning transcribing CNN... Needless to say, they had nothing about this young man's heroism.
I'm shocked... SHOCKED!!
the main stream media... can't have people believing in such a thing as the "Holy Spirit" can they?
Not any more. At one time, several decades ago, it would have been a different story, for sure.
But, that was back in the Bad Old Days when they used to do things like read the Bible and pray in school every day (as they did in my Public School).
How far the Mighty have fallen!
We reap what we have sown.
Was someone gay killed at the church? I hadn't seen that angle...who has been playing this up? Or maybe I'm reading your post wrong...
Would be interesting to compare and contrast the two media plays on this.
The government hate law is working. Create hate and you get it. Fear of prinicples that most christians have causes hate because and the Clintonista, with the help of the Senate Democrats are afraid of christian principles as it appears.
The government hate law is working. Create hate and you get it. Fear of prinicples that most christians have causes hate because and the Clintonista, with the help of the Senate Democrats are afraid of christian principles as it appears.
The media doesn't want anyone to know that Christians are simply sinners who have found God. So many people think they have to stop sinning BEFORE they can become a Christian. The media doesn't want them to learn the truth.
Now, someone tell this boy it is time to marry the mother of his baby.
btt
...."I could kill them without any moral ambiguity(sp?)".
This is a sign of a problem that has been festering in Christendom for quite a while now. There is such a thing as righteous killing. The commandment actually says "Thou shalt not murder". By using the more broad term of "not kill" rather than "not murder" we have made unrighteous the killing of Goliath by David or the killing of the preists of Baal. David was not guilty of murder until he put Bathsheba's husband in harms way. Then he committed the sin of murder. No one is expected to stand around and be shot or watch their relatives or friends be murdered just to please God. On the contrary, I believes He expects us to act on His behalf. We have no righteousness unto ourselves, only the righteousness of God. If we are in His will, then we are not under the law. The cases for killing are listed plainly in the Bible. This peace and love crap never entered the equation untill the hippies in the '60's.
This is the bane of America today, that no one reads the Bible today. Everyone reads just enough to get them in trouble. These people watch a movie and believe they have it all figured out. Someone was saying to me the other day that the "god" they believed in was not mean and jugemental. Well thats not the God of the Bible. God killed everyone on earth and sent them to hell except 8 in the ark. He also killed everyone in Sodom and Gomorah and they went to hell. He put the Hebrews in bondage for 490 years for failing to observe His sebatical years. The God of the Bible IS the judge of the universe. We are His to do with as He pleases. It is my personal belief that if America does not repent from mudering her babies and embracing sodomy, we shall see more horror and judgement from God than Sodom did. David was forgiven, but he lost his son anyway. The Bible tells us that if we don't repent, God will not hear our prayers and turn from us. A good first step would be to remove the incubus president we have. By not removing him when we had the chance, his sin became our sin.
Have a nice day!
You are correct, vengeance is mine says the Lord. Only he exacts vengeance. The great flood is an excellent example. I fear He is upon us.
This article seems to be the only news story that does not claim the killer's words were unintelligible.
Has anyone seen other articles that support this one ?
Houston Chronicel reporters were able to interview the witnesses and get this information, what happened to CNN, Time,New York Times, etc ?
"Shut the hell up, you (expletive) Christian," Ashbrook snapped. "Your religion sucks."
Ashbrook emptied his guns into the crowd and loaded fresh clips.
"This religion is bull----," he shouted.
Ashbrook, a troubled loner described by neighbors as hostile and paranoid, spat out one last obscenity and slowly turned the gun toward his own head and pulled the trigger.
Anything, anywhere out there on the words he used ?
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