School shooting

Earthtimes reported An armed student at Jerusalem's Mercaz Haray seminary played a crucial role in stopping a gun-wielding terrorist Thursday, but the American press is downplaying his heroism because it proves that armed students can stop campus gunmen, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

If this is true, schools should know about it.

Yitzhak Dadon, 40, was described as "a private citizen who had a gun license and was able to shoot the gunman with his pistol" by reporter Etgar Lefkovitz with the Jerusalem Post. However, many news agencies in the United States are downplaying Dadon's decisive role in the incident.

Jerusalem Post reported "We heard shooting and knew that something had happened," recounted Yitzhak Dadon, 40, who studies at the yeshiva. Dadon said he cocked his handgun and went up to the roof of the yeshiva, where he saw the terrorist spraying gunfire indiscriminately at the crowd inside. Dadon said he fired two bullets at the terrorist, who began to stumble.

At the same time, police arrived at the scene and an intense gunfight erupted with the terrorist lasting several minutes, witnesses said. The scent of gunpowder wafted in the air as undercover police stormed the building.

Times Online reported Witnesses described terrifying scenes during the shooting, with students jumping out the windows of the building to escape. It was at this point that one of the students, Yitzhak Dadon, took aim. “I lay on the roof of the study hall, cocked my gun and waited for him. He came out of the library spraying automatic fire,” said Mr Dadon, an army reservist. “He came to the entrance and I shot him twice in the head,” he said. A soldier then killed the gunman with a rifle, Mr Dadon added.

San Jose Mercury News reported Yitzhak Dadon, a part-time student, told Israeli radio that the gunman "came out of the library spraying" gunfire. "The terrorist came to the entrance, and I shot him twice in the head," Dadon said.

Rosenfeld of the police said, however, that the gunman, who has not yet been identified, was killed by an army officer who was passing by and two undercover policemen who were in the area. The gunman had a pistol and a Kalashnikov rifle and managed to change clips at least once, Rosenfeld said.