GREENWOOD, Ind.- The 22-year-old who stopped a shooter from carrying out a killing spree in a mall was armed because of the state’s constitutional carry law, WTHR reported.
Elisjsha Dicken, who learned to shoot from his grandfather and has no military or police training in firearms, shot and killed shooter Jonathan Thomas Sapirman of Greenwood just after Sapirman emerged from a bathroom at the Greenwood Park Mall and began going on a shooting spree just after 6 p.m. on Sunday.
Thanks to Indiana’s constitutional carry law, Dicken did not have — or require — a permit, WTHR reported.
“His actions were nothing short of heroic. He engaged the gunman from quite a distance with a handgun. Was very proficient in that, was tactically sound and as he moved to close in on the suspect, he was also motioning for people to exit behind him,” Greenwood Police Chief Jim Ison said about Dicken’s actions. “Many people would have died last night if not for a responsible armed citizen that took action very quickly within the first two minutes of this shooting.”
Police said Sapirman entered the mall just before 5 p.m. on Sunday. He proceeded to the bathroom at the food court, where he stayed for over an hour. Sapirman emerged from the bathroom just before 6 p.m. and began firing what police say totaled 24 rounds, taking the lives of 56-year-old Pedro Pineda and his 37-year-old wife Rosa Mirian Rivera de Pineda as well as 30-year-old Victor Gomez, according to WTHR.
A mere 15 seconds after Sapirman began firing, Dicken began firing at him from 40 yards away, unleashing ten rounds, eight of which connected, an autopsy revealed. WTHR reported that Sapirman attempted to retreat into the bathroom but collapsed and died. The autopsy on Sapirman revealed that none of the wounds he suffered were self-inflicted.
Many have referred to Dicken as a “Good Samaritan” for his actions, which saved untold lives on Sunday. Not unexpectedly, anti-gun leftists took to the internet screaming outrage.
“You’d never need a “Good Samaritan” with a gun at Greenwood Park Mall or at any other place if there weren’t any guns to begin with,” tweeted journalist David Leavitt, who referred to Dicken as an “armed vigilante.”
OUR TAKE
Perhaps Dicken and the rest of us may be excused if we do not wish to participate in David Leavitt’s social experiment. It is increasingly clear that the leftist utopia that anti-gun zealots like Leavitt pursue has no place for self-defense.
Leavitt seems to be implying that you are not to use your Second Amendment rights to protect yourself. And if you get killed at the homicidal whim of someone like Sapirman? Why, what an honor because you died in the noble pursuit of a gun-free America!
No thanks. We value our lives, families, property, and liberties.
Dicken is a case-in-point as to why constitutional carry needs to be nationwide. Gun owners understand this well, and politicians should note that we will be casting our votes to that end in every election we possibly can, whether Leavitt and his fellow travelers like it or not.
As for Dicken himself, all we have to say is: Great shooting, son. Your grandfather taught you well.
