Rashad Billingsley, an 18-year-old Alabama National Guardsman, hailed a "hero" after saving a 12-year-old in a Thanksgiving night mall shooting. (FOX 6)
Rashad Billingsley was at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, Alabama, to buy a pair of sneakers on Thanksgiving night.
"Not a minute after we got in the store the gunshots were fired,” Billingsley told FOX 6.
And that’s when his military training kicked in. While everyone was fleeing the situation, the 18-year-old Alabama National Guardsman went toward the action.
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His snap decision helped him save 12-year-old Molly Bennet's life, a decision that Molly's mother, Julie, say makes him a "hero".
But Billingsley was quick to credit his military training and his faith.
“Let me just say first all thanks to God for me being in that store,” Billingsley wrote on Facebook. “I’m a strong believer and believe everything happens for a reason…and my reason for being there was to help little Molly.”
It was at a side door exit where people were fleeing the mall that Billingsley met the wounded girl.
“Molly was complaining that her back hurt,” he said. “I saw she had blood on her shirt and when I lifted it up, I saw she had a bullet wound.”
Billingsley used a shirt off a store rack to apply pressure to the gunshot wound, and stayed with her until paramedics arrived.
For Molly, it wasn’t until her grandmother called her mother to say she had been shot, that she realized what happened to her.
“She’s a strong, brave little girl,” he said. “I’m glad she made it through.”
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Two more people were shot that evening, one fatally. Emantic “EJ” Bradford was shot by a Hoover Police Officer responding to the shooting. Police admitted the following day that Bradford was "likely" not the gunman who shot Molly.
"It could have been me,” Billingsley said. “He was in the army like I am. I send prayers to his family.”
Molly was discharged from the hospital and is thankful for the community’s prayers and support.
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“Yeah, bad guys are out there,” Bennett wrote on the night after the shooting. “But what I learned from this is that there are so many more good guys and girls who are willing to go above and beyond to help a stranger in need.”
Billingsley and Bennett are making plans to meet up one day.
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