Two years after a deadly shooting at Seattle Pacific University, prosecutors have released surveillance footage showing a heroic student take down the gunman – saving other students’ lives in the process.
The video was released on Tuesday after a lengthy court battle between the university, media outlets, and victims, The Seattle Times reports.
The full footage shows the gunman, identified as Aaron Ybarra, shoot a female student with a shotgun. When he pauses to reload, student-safety monitor Jon Meis jumps from behind a corner, pepper-sprays Ybarra in the face, tackles him to the floor and takes away the shotgun.
After stashing the weapon behind a wall, Meis returns, grabs the killer and puts him in a headlock until police arrive.
This hero seriously took the role of student-safety monitor to a whole new level.
Meis has been credited with saving the lives of multiple students after one was killed and two others were injured in the horrific June 5, 2014 attack.
In an interview with NBC News, Meis said: “I knew that if I didn’t stop him, he would keep going.”
Apparently, though, the university didn’t want the footage to be released, saying it would provoke ’emotional distress…on our commmunity’, the Huffington Post reports.
They said in a statement:
Seattle Pacific University remains strong and resilient as a result of God’s faithfulness to us. Our foremost concern continues to be the welfare and safety of not only our students, faculty, and staff, but of the victims and witnesses of the tragedy.
It was a horrendous event that, unfortunately, is all too familiar in America. But the release of the video does bring to light the heroic actions of one student, who saved countless lives. It doesn’t get much braver than that.
