Heroes showed up at Clackamas for Christmas shoppers

Heroes showed up at Clackamas for Christmas shoppers
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
December 12, 2012

Last night watching the news come out about the shooting at the Clackamas Town Center I was not focusing on the gunman deciding he had the right to kill people, but more on the heroes taking action to help others.

Before police and SWAT teams arrived, average employees were getting people to safe places, locking doors and doing whatever they could to help them. A woman was interviewed and said she was at the Macy's Lancôme counter when an employee got her out of the store and then said he was going back to help others out. Imagine that! In all that horror, this young employee thought of others and risked his life.

The Mall was full of families and people thinking of others buying Christmas gifts for people they cared about but this gunman wanted to take loved ones away. Why? I don't really care right now. His story will come out and for a while his name will be talked about. After all, think of all the lives this man pulled into his life in a very bad way.

"When the shooting began, people in line to get their photos taken with Santa immediately dove for cover, KGW reported."

"Kristina Shevchenko, was rushed to the hospital "critical" condition, according to a family statement. After surgery, the 15-year-old was upgraded to "stable" condition."

More heroes showed up to make sure people were safe. The gunman was dead and so were two other innocent people. A 15 years old was fighting for her life in surgery. Moms and Dads waiting with their kids for a visit with Santa ran or their lives along with everyone else in the Mall.

We can glorify the murderer or we can glorify the heroes. I choose to focus on the heroes and how God really was there last night because when people are able to risk their own lives for someone else, that comes from God. So while we may think evil was able to destroy this season of giving, he didn't succeed. Lives were saved because heroes acted out of love.