DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A security guard who tried to save the life of a DeKalb County grocery store clerk, and was shot himself in the process, is speaking out for the first time.
The security guard was just one of dozens of people attending a vigil for LaQuitta Willis Wednesday night.
With song and prayer, dozens of mourners gathered outside the Big Bear grocery store to remember Willis. Police say she was shot and killed by a man inside that grocery store while trying to do her job.
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After she was shot, one man tried coming to her rescue.
“She’s a sweet, sweet woman,” said Danny Jordan, a security guard who came to Willis’ defense during the shooting.
[RELATED: Cashier killed in grocery store triple shooting remembered as being ‘real sweet’]
Jordan told Channel 2 anchor Justin Wilfon that he saw Willis telling a man, now identified as Victor Lee Tucker Jr., to wear his face mask. Jordan says Tucker then left the store and returned moments later with a gun.
“I started running toward him, basically yelling to him to stop. So I’m trying to get to him, to get him off of her. But before I got to him, I heard a gunshot,” he recalled.
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Jordan says he and Tucker then began shooting at each other.
“At some point, I ended up shooting him in the legs. And that’s when he went down and crawled out of the store,” Jordan said.
He said he was shot twice, once in his bulletproof vest and once in the shoulder, but didn’t want to miss this vigil to remember his friend.
“People can call me crazy, but I think the good still outweighs the bad. I think there’s a lot more good people out here that are really sick and tired of what’s going on,” he said. “At some point we’ve got to quit accepting violence. We can not keep accepting this.”
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Wilfon asked Jordan if he could ever work in that store again, and he said he’s not sure. Jordan says that the people at Big Bear are like family to him, but he has an actual family as well that he as to think about. Because of everything he has been through, he will be getting some counseling to help get himself through it.
Tucker was captured and is currently recovering from his injuries at Grady Memorial Hospital.
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