Soldier stops armed attacker at Fort Leavenworth Kansas by ramming him with his car.

Centennial bridge, where the attack occurred. USA Today.

A solider stopped an armed attacker at Fort Leavenworth Kansas by ramming him with his car. USA Today. The attacker, a 37 year old man who has not been identified, got out of his car and began shooting, injuring one person and hitting two other vehicles. The solider responded by hitting the man with his vehicle, injuring him and ending the attack. The suspect and the wounded man, a 30 year old who was also a solider, are in serious but stable condition and are expected to survive. No motive has been released for the attack.

My Comment:

I saw this story late last night and knew that it had to be a post, even if we don't have all that much information. This was a good example of heroism and bravery and the soldier who stopped this attack likely saved many lives. He acted quick enough that only one person was shot, which is a very good thing as that bridge looks like a pretty good killzone. 

I have always said that the most important factor in a mass shooting is how able and willing the potential victims are to resist. That's why I advocate CCW and other forms of carrying weapons. But this case shows that guns aren't the only way to stop a rampage killer in his tracks. You should use any weapon you have at hand to take the attacker out and that's exactly what this guy did. 

Vehicles are pretty good weapons when it comes down to it. They have a lot of mass and power and if you get hit with one you are going to be at the very least incapacitated, if not killed outright. Terrorists have known this for awhile and there have been several devastating terror attacks using vehicles as weapons, most notably the Nice attack in France. 

It is very good to see this tactic used for good for once though. Ramming this attacker saved many lives and allowed the suspect to captured successfully. Nobody died in this case and that's almost the best case scenario in these kinds of situation, with the obvious caveat that an innocent man still ended up being shot. 

I won't speculate too much on motive. Right now it could be anything. He could have been a terrorist, though the fact that Ramadan ended on Saturday makes that seem less likely. And it's possible that this was politically motivated as he seemed to be targeting a military base. But my guess is that it was just some psychopath out for fame, fame that he will likely be denied now. 

Either way, it's nice to write up a post with such a good outcome. Any day where some jackass tries to kill a bunch of people and he fails miserably because someone steps up and takes him down is a good one. This soldier is a hero in my book and I'm glad I got to write about him.