Armybrat
Member
The “civilian”, a bookstore manager, Retrieved his handgun from his car and went up the Tower elevator where he met the two officers. He went around one direction and fired a shot at Whitman to distract him.Actually Officer Houston McCoy was with Officer Martinez that day and they both fired on Whitman.
Then from the other direction McCoy shot Whitman in the head with his shotgun as Martinez emptied his service revolver into him. Martinez grabbed the shotgun and pumped more rounds into the sniper who was probably dead by then.
Martinez got most of the credit (a young family man) and McCoy was almost ignored by the media even though his initial hit probably killed Whitman. Martinez went on to a career in the DPS (and as a Ranger, I think), while McCoy had a rough time later with the booze.
That’s the way I recall the story that was reported afterwards.