Family Research Council Hero Leo Johnson: 'God Put Me In a Position to Be There'
The Family Research Council employee who is cited with preventing the deaths of many people after a gunman opened fire outside the center is crediting God for placing him there at that moment to stifle the attack.
Leo Johnson, the building operation manager at the FRC, is being hailed as a hero after he stopped the gunman at the Family Research Council while sustaining gunshot wound to his arm. The gunman was carrying a 9mm handgun with two extra magazines and another 50 rounds of ammunition in his backpack.
During a recent interview Johnson revealed that the shooter, Floyd Lee Corkins II, posed as an intern and opened fire right before 11 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"I didn't feel any pain. I felt my arm snap back so I knew I was hit but I didn't feel any pain," Johnson told WJLA. "Although I didn't want to get shot, nobody wants to get shot, I feel that God put me in a position to be there at that time."
Even though he sustained a gunshot wound to his arm, Johnson was still able to talk Corkins out of shooting more people and then disarmed him.
Johnson explained that Corkins' actions were not directed at him personally, but rather at the policies of the FRC, which upholds traditional marriage and opposes homosexuality. The center has been at the center of the discussion after the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled the FRC as a "hate group" in 2010.
FRC President Tony Perkins stated that he visited Johnson in the hospital while he was revering and told him that he was being hailed as a hero.
"As he was coming to out of the surgery, I was there and I told him, I said, 'Leo, I want you to know, you're a hero and that's what we believe you are and that's what Americans all across the country believe you are, a hero, for what you did today,'" Perkins said during a press conference.
