Oscar Stewart, a 51-year-old Iraq War veteran, was standing at the back of the room when shots rang out during a Torah reading service at the Chabad of Poway on Saturday. His actions, described by San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore as an "act of courage," resulted in the shooter fleeing the scene before more damage was done.
At about 11:20 a.m., a 19-year-old man armed with an AR-15-style rifle entered the synagogue where worshipers had gathered for the end of Passover. He started shooting.
Before it was over, four people had been injured — one fatally — in what authorities are investigating as a hate crime.
According to Stewart, when the shooting began, most of the congregation got up and started to run to safety. But, for reasons he could not explain, Stewart ran the other way — toward the gunfire.
A sailor was killed on Friday at Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia, after he shot a female sailor several times in what is being described as an "isolated domestic shooting," Navy officials said.
On Dec. 7, two years after a domestic disturbance call took a tragic turn and claimed the lives of two Americus, Georgia police officers, the Marine Corps honored one of their own: Lance Cpl. Nicholas Smarr, who died while rendering first aid to another fatally wounded officer.
The failure of the U.S. Air Force to report a domestic violence conviction to civilian authorities "had drastic consequences" that led to the shooting deaths of 26 people and the wounding of 22 others at a Texas church in 2017, and it "should not have occurred," according to a new report released Friday from the Pentagon Inspector General.
For the second time in just over a year, Lance Cpl. Brendan Kelly survived a mass shooting by falling back on his Marine Corps training to get to safety — and help others in need.
