Heroes of Tucson Shooting: 'Something Had to Be Done'

Bill Badger helped subdue shooter, bullet grazed back of his head.

ByABC News
January 10, 2011, 8:25 AM

Jan. 10, 2011— -- A 74-year-old retired Army colonel decided to tackle the Tucson gunman after watching him shoot a little girl.

"Something had to be done," Bill Badger said today on "Good Morning America."

Badger wasn't the only one who risked his life to stop the carnage. One man clobbered alleged gunman Jared Loughner on the back of the head with a folding chair. A 61-year-old woman wrestled a fresh magazine away from Loughner as he tried to reload.

Others jumped on him and held him down, ripping the gun from his hands.

Six people were killed in Saturday's shooting rampage at the Tucson, Ariz., grocery store, and Rep.Gabrielle Giffords was left fighting for her life.

Badger was waiting in line to meet Giffords at the "Congress on Your Corner" event when he heard gun shots.

"I turned and dropped to the ground, and I felt a sting in the back of the head, and that's where he shot me, in the back of the head. I knew I'd been hit," Badger said.

Badger, who was treated for the injury at the University Medical Center and released, is among those who've been hailed as heroes for subduing Loughner and stopping further carnage after a shooting that left 20 people shot or injured.

"[Loughner] was standing right in front of me. He took about a half a step to my left and some individual there took one of the folding chairs ... and hit him on the back of the head, and I was able to grab him," Badger said.

Together, Badger and another man pushed the suspected shooter to the ground.