Gunfight Stories: Andy Brown

Andy Brown was an Air Force Security Forces airman the day he had to respond to an active shooter. His personal training paid off during the event and he was able to finish the fight.

On 20 June 1994, an former airman began his assault on a hospital at Fairchild Air Force Base. Senior Airman Brown received the call at a nearby entry gate. Though he was assigned to bicycle patrol, he was only about a third of a mile away, and was able to arrive on the scene quickly.

Upon his arrival, he was able to ascertain which direction to go based on the information fed through central dispatch and the panicked crowd. Approaching the building the assailant was said to have just left, Brown found the shooter firing at people in the open grass area between buildings.

Brown took a knee and shouted voice commands for the shooter to drop the weapon. When these commands went unheeded, Airman Brown fired his 9mm Beretta. From a distance of 67 yards, he was able to disable the shooter.

Browns book "Warnings Unheeded" details the shooting through multiple accounts of people in the building as well as his own. The book also catogues the mistakes and issued signs that committed to the evemtual shooting. It also chronicles the lead up and event of a plane crash at an exhibition that killed airmen and spectators. His book, aptly named "Warnings Unheeded" is about the events, but is more about what signs were in place priorto the event that could have prevented them.

It's a great book and I highly recommend it. You can find it here:

https://a.co/d/giIj1ru