COMBAT VET STOPPED THE SYNAGOGUE SHOOTER

[CharlesHarris]

From The San Diego Tribune

The man who fired a semi-automatic weapon inside the Chabad of Poway synagogue in San Diego on Saturday froze, dropped his gun and sprinted to his car when he saw Oscar Stewart come barreling toward him...

The Iraq combat veteran said his military training kicked in.

“I knew I had to be within five feet of this guy so his rifle couldn’t get to me,” Stewart said. “So I ran immediately toward him, and I yelled as loud as I could. And he was scared. I scared the hell out of him.”

Stewart served in the Navy in explosive ordnance disposal from 1990 to 1994, then enlisted in the Army in 2001 because of the Sept. 11 terror attacks... He was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and left the military in 2004, as a staff sergeant. He’s now in construction work.

When the gunman opened fire, he was in the back of the synagogue. By the time he got to the lobby, the shooter had killed one woman, blown the finger off of a rabbi, and injured two others.

“I heard gunshots,” Stewart said. “And everybody got up and started trying to get out the back door, so I — for whatever reason — I didn’t do that. I ran the other way. I ran towards the gun shots.”

“When I came around the corner into the lobby area, I saw the individual with a gun, and he fired two rounds...I yelled at him...he immediately dropped his weapon and turned and ran. And then I gave chase...”

Stewart said he chased him...out to his car and ...intending to...drag him out of the car. That’s when a Border Patrol agent who attends the synagogue came running out to the parking lot... The agent fired several rounds into the lower part of the vehicle, intending to disable it, but the shooter managed to drive away. The two of them then grabbed a phone from someone and called the police...

After he sped off, Stewart ran back into the synagogue and found a woman he knew, 60-year-old Lori Gilbert Kaye, unresponsive on the floor in the lobby. He began CPR and continued trying to bring her back to life as a couple of doctors arrived and began to assist him. She didn’t make it... Stewart considers her the real hero. Eyewitnesses said she jumped in front of the rabbi to save his life...

Police said Stewart's actions effectively stopped the shooter... He [Stewart] thinks... the shooter had emptied his magazine...let the slung weapon drop and fled.

“When I yelled at him he turned and looked at me...the look on his face was one of amazement at first, and then one of fear. He saw me coming, and I was ready to do whatever I had to do to stop him...”

The funeral service for Kaye is on Monday. He expects the synagogue will be totally packed.