wasn t feeling well, got up and was pretty bad off, kind of got him to move over, sit down next to me. i got up and i rubbed his shoulders and whispered in his ear the exit is right over there. and then when we brought the pizza in. instead of putting it on the tables in the back, i motioned for rabbi charlie to come sit with us so that we could all be neatly in line with the exit. and that was critical, because five, six steps at most we were out the door. and having this training that was, in this case, was done by the secure community network, it absolutely saved our lives. you know, the other thing that i want to bring up is this guy was not the shooter that we hear about all the time that wants to just come in and shoot all the jews. this was not him. he came here, he came to us, he terrorized us because he
and a moment later, i heard that very distinct click of an automatic handgun, the slide being pulled back. it didn t make sense. it was a sound that was out of context. and rabbi charlie was looking over at him as well, and very soon after that, he jumps up and he starts screaming, and i knew that we had a problem. i dialed 911. i keep my phone next to me during the service. i dialed 911 and i turned the phone over so the screen was down and left it there and walked down that aisle toward where he wanted us to be, and i both tactically and strategically positioned myself on the aisle closest to the door so that we did have a clear shot out. you know, that training that we had really i should say a course, it wasn t really
that was the first time that we had been not subservient to him, and he pulled back. the aggression kind of made him pull back. he sat back down. i think that s when he put down his gun and went to pour his soda. i didn t actually see that. but that s when rabbi charlie yelled run and threw the chair at him. my friend got one step in front of me. he was the guy who had been feeling poorly, so i grabbed him under the arms and pushed him out. as a matter of fact, in your wfaa footage, initially they were saying two people got out. that s because i was holding him so close. i m the guy in the blue shirt. and rabbi was behind us. we got out the door and they ran forward, i was running, and i tripped and went down hard on my knees and face, knocked my glasses off, and so i started crawling under the hedge row that is there, because i could go into the neighbor s yard.
calmly, in the uk you do have a chief rabbi, i don t remember who it is now. but it used to be my gosh, i ve quickly forgotten. anyway, we don t have a chief rabbi in the united states. we re somewhat independent, and he wanted to talk to one specific rabbi out of new york, and rabbi charlie was able to find her phone number somehow and we called her and left her a message and said what was going on. she called back and he spoke very briefly with her. his demeanor changed not too long after that and he became much calmer, maybe because he thought he was going to get what he wanted. and it changed from more attack to i m going to die, i m going to let these guys go, but i m going to die here and that s okay. me and my sister. and at some point later on, i asked, when was the last time you spoke with your sister, and