Man who shot gunman at Louie's says he's no hero

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Bryan Whittle doesn't think of himself as a hero for stopping the gunman outside Louie's Grill & Bar at Lake Hefner last Thursday.

"Oh, no. No, no. Not at all," the master sergeant in the Oklahoma Air National Guard told The Oklahoman. "I just feel like I'm just an average guy who had the right tool to help at the right time."

Whittle and another armed civilian confronted and fired on the gunman Thursday evening minutes after he shot a woman and two girls from outside the popular restaurant, police said.

The gunman was killed after he raised his weapon and fired again, police and eyewitnesses said.

"I just reacted," Whittle, 39, said. "I just did it. I wasn't thinking about anything other than I had to stop this guy and I'm not going to die here."

Whittle lives in The Village near Lake Hefner. He and his wife, Shannon, had just started on a fishing trip to a lake in eastern Oklahoma for the Memorial Day weekend.

"We just were about to get on the highway and we both saw a big commotion going on down by where the restaurants are," he said.

His first thought was that someone was drowning because people were running toward the lake.

"I had a first-aid kit. I thought maybe I could help," he said.

After pulling into the parking lot, he was told by witnesses a girl had been shot. They pointed out the shooter, about 25 feet away.

He yelled at his wife to throw him a bag with his gun. She did, telling him she loved him as he got his .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol out and started off to where everybody was pointing.

He kept crouched down behind a row of parked cars for cover until he got close enough.

He went around the side of a larger vehicle and began yelling at the gunman, "Put it down! Put it down!"

He then realized the gunman was wearing ear muffs and probably couldn't hear his commands. Whittle started gesturing with his hand, too.

The gunman instead raised his weapon, and Whittle dived for cover.

"I hear shots go off," he recalled. "As I'm falling on the ground, I'm like, 'Oh, my God! He's shooting at me! He's shooting at me!'

"I thought, 'Look, I'm not going to die on the ground. I'm not going to die here. I've got to engage this guy. I've got to stop him,'" he said. "I didn't want to die helpless. If I was going to die, I was going to try."

He said he jumped back up and ran around to the other side of the car.

"I think he thought I was going to be coming from the past direction," he said. "I got to the hood of the car. ... He turns around, looks at me. And then I see the gun again in his hand and then I, you know, finished trying to stop the threat. Until he fell on the ground."

He was not aware another armed civilian had come to help until he heard a guy say, "Clear him. I got you. Clear him."

The second civilian was identified by police as Juan Carlos Nazario, 35. The security guard told one TV station that he just did what he was trained to do "to neutralize the situation."

Nazario has not talked to the media at length about the confrontation. He has said he needed time to soak everything in.

Whittle gave his first in-depth media interview Saturday to The Oklahoman at the urging of his proud great-uncle, state Rep. Bobby Cleveland.

"Bryan is a very rare individual," Cleveland said. "He just feels ... he just happened to be there in the right time at the right place."

Whittle agreed, saying, "I guess God puts us in a place for a reason."

He has been reluctant to speak about his experience because he doesn't want what he did to be politicized.

"I just feel like anybody would have done what I did if they had the ability to do it," he said.

Whittle, who works for the Federal Aviation Administration, brought to the situation both his military training and military experience from being deployed to hostile areas. He said he's been deployed eight times in his more than 18 years of military service.

He said police officers thanked him for what he did once they realized his role. "They said, 'You definitely saved lives today,'" he recalled.

The gunman was identified by police as Alexander C. Tilghman, 28, of Oklahoma City.

In April, Tilghman pleaded for help in a YouTube video, saying he was "under hard-core demonic attack."

Whittle is not surprised.

"Anybody committing anything like that would have to have some kind of mental issue," Whittle said.

He said the gunman never said anything during their encounter.

"He just looked dazed," Whittle said. "And he tilted his head. And then that's when he raised up his weapon. And he fired."