FRC Security Guard Shot by Gunman: "I Feel That God Put Me In a Position to Be There At That Time"
CNS NEWS reporting "The security guard who stopped a gunman at the Family Research Council (FRC) on Wednesday, despite sustaining a shot to the arm, said God put him there at that time to stop the attack. The gunman was carrying a 9mm handgun with two extra loaded magazines and another 50 rounds of ammunition in his backpack."
Leo Johnson, the building operation manager at the FRC, a conservative policy group that promotes "faith, family and freedom," has been hailed as a hero by authorities for not letting an armed gunman get too far past the front door. In an interview with WJLA-TV, Johnson described how the shooter, Floyd Lee Corkins II, posed as an intern and opened fire without warning just before 11 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
"I didn't feel any pain. I felt my arm snap back so I knew I was hit but I didn't feel any pain," said Johnson.
Although wounded, Johnson disarmed and subdued Corkins, who said his actions were not about the security guard but about the policies of the Family Research Council. As a security guard at the FRC Johnson does not wear a uniform or carry a gun.
"Although I didn't want to get shot, nobody wants to get shot, I feel that God put me in a position to be there at that time," Johnson said.
FRC President Tony Perkins said he visited his colleague in the hospital where he was recovering, at a press conference on Thursday.
"As he was coming to out of the surgery, I was there and I told him, I said, 'Leo, I want you to know, you're a hero and that's what we believe you are and that's what Americans all across the country believe you are, a hero, for what you did today,'" Perkins said.
"Well, this hero business is hard work," Johnson said.
FBI spokeswoman Jacqueline Maguire and D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier each extolled Johnson as a hero, who "did above and beyond what he was supposed to do."