A legally armed man shot and killed a gunman in Brownsburg, Ind., this week after a fatal unprovoked shooting, saving a second victim’s life in the process.
The 22-year-old suspect, Joshua Christopher Hayes, allegedly attacked two men as they were working in the Brownsburg Cemetery Tuesday afternoon, Indianapolis-based 360aproko news reported.
Without provocation, Hayes allegedly chased 36-year-old worker Seth Robertson out into an intersection, where he shot and killed him, according to the station.
As Hayes was chasing the second cemetery worker, one of his bullets whizzed into the vehicle of an unidentified good Samaritan who was stopped at a red light near the intersection, injuring him, the Indianapolis Star reported.
That man stepped out of the car, returned fire with a legal weapon and fatally struck Hayes.
“This tragic event could have been much more disastrous,” Brownsburg Police Capt. Jennifer Barrett told 360aproko news. “Victim three not only saved victim two’s life, but he saved potentially the lives of many others. Victim three did exactly what anybody would have wanted him to do at that scene that day.”
Speaking with a 360aproko news, a local radio station, Second Amendment attorney Guy Relford said he was representing the driver and argued that the shooting was justified.
“My client looked at that and realized there was one thing he could do and that was take action to save an innocent life,” he told the station. “The scenario was fairly clear to him in that one person was chasing another and the other was saying, ‘no, no, no, no, please don’t shoot me.’”
Relford is also a firearms trainer and a weekend host at the radio station.
“They very quickly, the BPD did, determined my client acted completely lawfully and he was justified under Indiana law,” Relford said in the interview.
Police told 360aproko they did not see a reason to charge the driver with a crime but the decision would be made by the Hendricks County Prosecutor’s Office.
Investigators also said they believed Hayes’ mental health issues may have led to the shootout.
