Connect with us

News

Glendon Oakley : Meet the hero soldier who saved children during the shooting in El Paso, Texas

Glendon Oakley sprint into action when a young child burst into the store he was at and told him there was a shooting nearby at a Walmart in El Paso.

Unheard Voices Magazine

Published

on

Glendon Oakley : Meet the hero soldier who saved children during the shooting in El Paso, Texas
Glendon Oakley

22-year-old Army automated logistics specialist, Glendon Oakley, had been shopping at a sporting goods store inside the Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso when a child burst into the store shouting about an active shooter at the nearby Walmart.

“The guy at the register and I sort of looked at each other,” Oakley told Task & Purpose. “He’s a little kid … are you going to believe him?”

Glendon Oakley sprang into action

When Oakley exited the store minutes later and headed to Footlocker next door, he finally heard the sound of gunfire echoing across the mall. He immediately pulled the Glock 9mm he occasionally carries under Texas’s concealed carry laws. While he had just returned from an incident-free deployment to Kuwait, this was not his first firefight.

“That’s what you do,” he told Task & Purpose. “You pull your gun, you find cover, and you figure out what to do next.”

A group of a dozen children gathered in one of the mall’s open play areas, screaming for their parents. Oakley says he tried to get fleeing bystanders to help, but none would stop.

Don't miss out!
Subscribe To Newsletter

Receive the latest in news, music, and issues that matter. 

Invalid email address
Give it a try. You can unsubscribe at any time. We will never spam your inbox.

He started grabbing kids

“I didn’t even think. I just grabbed as many kids as I could and ran five stores down to the exit,” he said.

“I heard four kids died,” he said, his voice softening. “I wish I could have gotten more kids out of there. I wish those guys who ran would have stayed … I just think, what if that was my child? How would I want some other man to react?”

See also  This 78-year-old grandma is a powerlifting champion

Twenty people were killed, and dozens more injured after a gunman entered a Walmart in El Paso and opened fired on customers stocking up on back-to-school goods, at about 10:30 a.m. on Saturday.

The mass shooting came less than 15 hours before another gunman killed nine people and wounded more than two dozen more in a popular business district in Dayton, Ohio.

Read more on Task and Purpose


----------------------------------------------------------
Connect with Unheard Voices on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube

Download the app on Google Play or ITunes.
----------------------------------------------------------
Unheard Voices Magazine is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

Unheard Voices is an award-winning news magazine that started in 2004 as a local Black newsletter in the Asbury Park, Neptune, and Long Branch, NJ areas to now broaden into a recognized Black online media outlet. They are the recipient of the NAACP Unsung Hero Award and CV Magazine's Innovator Award for Best Social Justice Communications Company.

Facebook

Tags

Archives

unheard voices shop
unheard voices on google play unheard voices on itunes

Trending