A Fort Leavenworth, Kansas soldier is being hailed as a hero after he used his car to stop a man who was randomly shooting at drivers on a bridge near the military installation on Wednesday.
Fort Leavenworth Police Chief Patrick Kitchens said another soldier was injured by the shooter during the incident, which began around 11 a.m., KMBC reported.
Kitchens said the first officers on the scene thought it was a road rage incident on the Centennial Bridge. They quickly learned that a man had been using numerous weapons to fire randomly at vehicles that were attempting to cross the bridge that joins Kansas and Missouri.
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Master Sgt. David Royer, the soldier who struck the suspect had been sitting in traffic when he saw the incident unfold before him.
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“The soldier intervened by striking the shooter with his vehicle, causing him to be critically injured, but ending the encounter with the active shooter and likely saving countless lives,” Kitchens told reporters.
According to police, both the soldier who was shot and the suspect are in serious but stable condition in a local hospital. The suspect is from Platte County, Missouri.