A senior airman at Offutt Air Force Base confronted a gunman who opened fire on his family's home on August 6. Harrison Friar was finishing his dinner when he heard unusual noises outside his home. Moments later, bullets began tearing through the Friar family residence, with white-patched holes now marking spots just on the other side of their son's bedroom.
"He looked at me and then he started raising the firearm. At that point, I said no or don't, I don't remember which, hoping that it would dissuade him from doing what he was obviously going to do, but he proceeded to fire at us," Friar said.
The gunman's bullets struck dangerously close to family members inside the home.
"Even my dad, too, like from where he was standing to where a bullet went. You know, it's like how you can hear a bullet go by you, like, it was that close," Friar said.
With his father-in-law moving the children to safety in a back room, Friar knew he had to act. The senior airman retrieved his weapon and confronted the shooter head-on.
"I need to fire back like he's he's trying to kill us, he's. Like He, he, he's very intentionally serious about trying to take us out. When I shot him, I hit him in the leg in the hand," Harrison said.
The gunfire forced the shooter to retreat to his home, which shortly after caught fire.
"He had planned to continue to shoot more people. That was his intention. He had a lot more ammunition in the house, but when I shot him, it I think it reduced his mobility because I hit him in the leg, so he could no longer walk around and continue to do what he wanted," Harrison said.
During the confrontation, Harrison and his wife Brielle, took cover behind their family vehicles. The shooter struck the cars, damaging a windshield and totaling one vehicle.
"The only way to do is go out and, you know, you've got to confront the bad actor, you know, the, the evil that's happening," Harrison said.
Brielle was on the phone with law enforcement during the incident. Harrison said officers arrived within minutes of him shooting the attacker.
"Thankfully, the law enforcement response was extremely quick. They were, they were in town doing some sort of event or something, yeah, some sort of like law enforcement event in town, so they were there probably within less than 1 minute of me actually firing upon him," Harrison said.
The tragedy has left the tight-knit community shaken, as two neighbors were shot and killed during the incident. However, the Friars say it has brought the community closer together.
"I get that it's just, you know, hard looking, you know, out the door every day and seeing it, smelling it, you know, it's not fun," Brielle said.
Friar says his neighborhood has come together to try and heal. They're now working with the city to get what's left of the gunman's home torn down.
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