A Houston cop is being lauded as a hero for thwarting a possible mass shooting at a Texas mall.
The worrisome incident took place in February, but Houston Police Sgt. Kendrick Simpo is just now speaking about how he may have prevented a massacre.
On Feb. 5, Simpo was working an extra job at The Galleria mall in Houston’s Uptown District when he received a call about a man wielding a rifle near the Macy’s retail store.
Simpo and a security guard rushed towards Macy’s, but along the way, there was a dance competition inside the mall with hundreds of children and adults. The crowd was only a few hundred feet away from Macy’s.
“I did know there was a dance competition with little kids going on at the Westin Ballroom, so I didn’t pull my weapon out because I didn’t want to be running towards the Macy’s area, which is past the ballroom area, with the gun out and startle anyone,” Simpo told KTRK-TV.
Simpo, 41, scanned the mall and identified the suspect – later identified as Guido Herrera. The suspect was armed with a rifle in one hand, a Bible in the other, and wearing a shirt with the Punisher logo along with a leather mask with spikes.
“I knew if a person did have a rifle, and they were inside the mall, I was pretty much outnumbered because all I had was a handgun at the time,” he said. “My handgun and his rifle, I was already at a disadvantage.”
“I could possibly be shot, and it was going to hurt, but that’s when the fight or flight kicked in. I decided to fight,” Simpo told the Houston Chronicle.
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