AndrewBlakeWashington, D.C. – According to a new report released by the FBI, citizens successfully intervened in eight active shooter incidents in 2016 and 2017.
The FBI report says that the citizens “safely and successfully” ended the shooting by confronting the shooter.
“Their selfless actions likely saved many lives,” the report stated.
In four of the eight incidents, unarmed citizens confronted the shooter.
In the other four incidents, citizens legally carrying firearms stopped the shooter. In two of those incidents the citizens exchanged gunfire with the shooter. In the other two incidents, the armed citizens held the shooter at gunpoint until the police arrived.
The most high profile citizen intervention of a shooting happened Nov. 5, 2017. That’s when Devin Kelley killed 26 people and wounded 20 more when he entered the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas with a rifle and started shooting.
When Kelley exited the church, he was met by a citizen who shot him twice.
Kelley then dropped his rifle and fled the scene in his vehicle. That armed citizen and an owner of a pickup truck pursued Kelley. The chase ended when Kelley’s vehicle struck a road sign and overturned.
Kelley killed himself with a handgun he had in his vehicle before police arrived.
One citizen intervention stopped a man wearing body armor and armed with two rifles before he killed anybody.
On Nov. 14, 2017, Travis Green began shooting at a Dollar General store in Cheektowaga, New York. A citizen hit Green with their car, which caused Green to drop his weapons and flee.
No one was killed and only one person was wounded before Green was caught by police.
The report found that there were 50 active shooter incident in the past two years with 20 in 2016 and 30 in 2017.
The FBI defined these incidents as “one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area.”
The 50 shooters were all male and each acted alone, according to the FBI report.
Thirteen shooters committed suicide.
Eight of the shooters killed themselves at the scene before police arrived.
Three killed themselves at the scene after law enforcement arrived and two killed themselves at another location.
Eleven of the shooters were killed by police.