RISKED THEIR LIVES: Joe Zamudio and Dan Badger (above), wrestled assassin Jared Lee Loughner to the ground while Patricia Maisch disarmed him. (Brigitte Stelzer)
Joe Zamudio (Getty Images)
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Patricia Maisch hit the ground when the crazed assassin opened fire with a 9mm Glock, shooting Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and anyone in else in his sight.
Then, suddenly, the madman was on the ground, right next to her, after bystanders tackled him, and someone was shouting, “Get the magazine!”
Maisch looked up and saw the gunman, allegedly Jared Loughner, reaching for a second 31-shot clip from his pants pocket after emptying his first.
“He was pulling the magazine out of his pocket with his left hand, and I was able to grab the magazine when he pulled it out,” Maisch said last night.
Authorities praised the quick-thinking 61-year-old, who attended the event to thank Giffords for her vote for the stimulus package.
“That was an incredible act of heroism,” Sheriff Clarence Dupnick said. “I’m going to tell you: If she hadn’t done that, there’s a possibility we might have double the number of victims.”
But Maisch modestly gave the credit to others, especially the two men who knocked down the stone-faced and silent 22-year-old gunman.
“Those two men were my heroes, because I believe they saved my life. I believe I was the next to be shot,” Maisch said.
Those heroes were retired Army Col. Dan Badger and Joseph Zamudio, who restrained the shooter.
“I heard the shots. It was just ‘Pop! Pop! Bang! Bang! Bang!’ I couldn’t believe that is was gunshots, until I turned and saw that he was coming at me and shooting,” said Badger, a father of six with 10 grandchildren.
“And then I felt this sting in the back of my head,” he said, realizing he’d been grazed.
Badger saw his chance when someone bashed Loughner with a folding chair.
“He slumped forward, and his left arm flew out, and I grabbed it and twisted his arm and pushed him down,” Badger said.
Then he knelt on Loughner to keep him pinned, and another bystander placed his knee on the shooter’s neck. The only thing he would say was “Ow, ow, ow,” Badger said of the gunman.
It was then that the killer reached for the magazine and Maisch yanked it away.
A grim-faced Dupnick thanked all who pitched in.
“We are very, very grateful that there are people around who would behave in a courageous fashion like that,” he said.
Once police arrived, Maisch got paper towels and applied pressure to Badger’s head wound. He was later treated at a local hospital and released.
“It was as gruesome as you could possibly get,” he said.
“You had at least 10 people who looked to be dead at my feet. All the people that were in the chairs were on the ground bleeding. No one was saying anything. And there was one woman holding her husband, trying to get him to say something. It looked like he was gone.”
Asked why she jumped in, Maisch said, “I don’t know. I guess I thought it was the right thing to do.”
With additional reporting by Nick Martin in Tucson