Cheektowaga Police are crediting civilians with trying to stop an active shooter from firing into a Dollar General Store on Union Road. The shooting happened Tuesday afternoon leaving one person with a non-life threatening gunshot injury to his shoulder.
Travis Green, 29, is now being held without bail and charged with multiple felonies including attempted murder and criminal use of a firearm.
When the shooting starting, the owner and an employee at Daryll's Car-Audio heard and saw Green standing outside the Dollar General Store and shooting towards it. The two called 911 - then when Green put down his weapon, owner Mark Pinnavaia tied to run into Green with his own vehicle. Green jumped over the hood of Pinnavaia's Ford Focus and began to run around behind the store. Pinnavaia and co-worker, Christopher Kaufmann, chased the suspect on foot to the front of the store where Cheektowaga Police had arrived on-scene.
Both civilians say their first instinct was to call 911 then take action. Neither man has military training but Pinnavaia said he is a member of the Erie County Sheriff's Reserve Division. When asked, Pinnavaia and Kaufmann said "we are not heroes" just two people who decided to react without thinking about their own safety.
Hear them describe what happened in the attached clip.
