At a mall filled with children for a dance competition, one heroic cop did the unthinkable. When he spotted a heavily armed man in the crowd, he placed the lives of others over his own.
Sgt. Kendrick Simpo, a Houston police officer, has spoken out about thwarting a potential mass shooting after a man armed with a rifle and 120 rounds of ammunition was spotted in a mall near a children’s dance competition.
According to WSAZ, Simpo was working a second job at the Galleria in Houston’s Uptown District when he heard a call about a man with a rifle near Macy’s inside the mall. He and a security guard made their way toward Macy’s to confront the gunman.
Sgt. Kendrick Simpo noted that he took special measures to not startle the hundreds of children and adults gathered for the dance competition, which was just a few hundred feet away from the department store.
“I did know there was a dance competition with little kids going on at the Westin Ballroom,” Simpo explained to ABC 13. “So I didn’t pull my weapon out because I didn’t want to be running towards the Macy’s area, which is past the ballroom area, with the gun out and startle anyone.”
Simpo saw the suspect, later identified as Guido Herrera, near the Westin Ballroom’s entrance within a few feet of hundreds of children. The off-duty cop was just wearing a soft vest and had a handgun, but he fearlessly engaged the suspect anyway.
“I quickly bum-rushed, tackled him. And my first reaction was to make sure that I get a hold of the rifle. No matter what I grabbed, make sure I grabbed that rifle,” Simpo recalled. “I had in my mind (that) I was going to get shot. I just had to bear the pain. I knew it was going to hurt, and I was like, ‘Whatever I do, I cannot let go of this rifle.’”
The hero police officer, who had worked off-duty security jobs at the mall for nearly a decade, further explained how his training kicked in as the worrisome incident unfolded and how he knew he was at a disadvantage.
“I knew if a person did have a rifle, and they were inside the mall, I was pretty much outnumbered because all I had was a handgun at the time. My handgun and his rifle, I was already at a disadvantage,” he said.
Simpo was able to point the suspect’s gun toward the ceiling while trying to subdue him. Backup soon arrived and arrested Herrera without a single shot being fired, ABC 13 reported.
“I definitely know what I signed up for 20 years ago when I got into this profession,” said the soft-spoken sergeant, who worked in the Houston Police Victim Services Division.
Surveillance video showed Herrera wearing a shirt with the Punisher logo, carrying a rifle in one hand and a Bible in another. He was wearing a leather mask with spikes. According to reports, police found that Herrera also brought 120 rounds of ammunition and a handgun to the mall. The potential mass shooter was charged with a misdemeanor for the Galleria incident.
Sadly, he didn’t seem to learn his lesson. “Just over a month after the incident at the mall, Herrera went to the Houston FBI headquarters and requested a meeting with the director of the FBI,” New York Post reported. “Law enforcement officials found a gun inside his car during that incident. He was again charged with a misdemeanor because he did not shoot the weapon or point it at anyone.”
The thwarting of potential mass shootings may happen more than most people realize. In fact, another incident was curtailed at an Indiana mall when a civilian with a concealed carry permit walked in to find the suspect actively firing at people. According to Fox News, the heavily armed suspect killed three people and injured two others before Elisjsha Dicken, who was at the mall with his girlfriend, drew his pistol and fatally shot the gunman.
“[T]hese heroic acts happen much more frequently than most imagine because they rarely get national news coverage,” Newsweek explained. “There have been at least 10 similar cases over the last year, and 21 since the beginning of 2020. And there is no reason to believe those tallies are comprehensive, given how little media coverage is usually devoted to these heroic acts.”
The political fallout over gun control may be one reason we don’t hear about these cases. Nevertheless, those who put their lives on the line to save innocent bystanders have every right to be lauded as heroes rather than being ignored by those who have an agenda.