Hero parishioner who stopped shooter receives state's highest civilian honor
Jack Wilson took down down a gunman who killed two at a church.
A Granbury, Texas, man who bravely jumped into action last month by gunning down an active shooter at a church has received the state's highest civilian honor.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott presented Jack Wilson with the Medal of Courage Monday morning for stopping "a gunman in a deadly shooting at a church in North Texas."
Wilson, 71, is a former reserve deputy sheriff who was at the West Freeway Church of Christ in Fort Worth on Dec. 29, when Keith Thomas Kinnunen opened fire during a service.
Kinnunen was seen on livestream footage of the service using a short-barreled shotgun that had been hidden under a long coat to shoot two churchgoers before Wilson killed him.
Tony Wallace and Richard White were killed.
Wallace, 64, was a church deacon. White was a 67-year-old armed member of the church's volunteer security team.
"I don't see myself as a hero," Wilson told reporters after the shooting. "I see myself as doing what needed to be done to take out the evil threat."
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