Stephen Willeford and Johnny Langendorff, the two men who chased the gunman after the Texas church shooting, attended a vigil Monday night for the victims.
Willeford, 55, heard the shots being fired when he was at his Sutherland Springs home on Sunday morning and ran with his rifle to confront the gunman, exchanging gunfire with Devin Kelley and wounding him before Kelley fled the scene, Fox News reported.
Willeford then flagged down Langendorff, 27, in a nearby pickup truck and they pursued Kelley while they called 911 to report the shooting and chase, Fox News noted. Kelley eventually crashed his car and is believed to have shot himself before he was found dead in the vehicle. Langendorff told the New York Daily News that he was driving to Sutherland Springs to pick up his girlfriend when Willeford flagged him down.
The two men attended the candlelight vigil with relatives and embraced each other during the vigil, People magazine reported. They locked arms with each other and relatives and prayed together, with Willeford wiping away tears as the vigil went on.
At the end of the vigil, the pastor shouted, "Jesus, this is your town," and both men left, People reported. Sutherland Springs is a community of about 600 people, with about 4 percent of town, or 26 people, having been killed in the shooting, CNN reported. Twenty others were injured.
Kelley’s motive for the shooting was thought to be anger against his former in-laws, who attended the church. Kelley should not have been able to obtain a firearm legally after his dishonorable discharge for domestic violence, but the conviction was not entered into the FBI database that would have prevented the purchase, WTOP reported.
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