Positivity: Alabama Welder Hailed as Hero For Trying to Stop Mass Murderer

From Samson, Alabama (HT Michelle Malkin):

Friday, March 13, 2009

Many around Samson knew Bruce Maloy as their town’s comedian, a goodhearted, wiry little jokester who was always boasting about hitting it big someday.

In life, he never really got the spotlight he was seeking. But in the days following the massacre that shattered their small Alabama community, some have dropped the comedian label and replaced it with another: Hero.

On Friday, witnesses and authorities said Maloy, the 10th and final victim of Tuesday’s shooting rampage by Michael McLendon, single-handedly tried to end the violence with his beat-up old pickup truck.

With gunshots still echoing through downtown Samson and the killer headed toward a bigger city 12 miles away, Maloy chased McLendon’s dark red Mitsubishi out of town, ramming the vehicle at least once.

Maloy slowed down the killer briefly, and he may have given police and state troopers time to catch up to McLendon, said Geneva County Chief Deputy Tony Helms. But it cost him his life.

“There’s a hero in all of this that nobody is talking about, and that’s Bruce Maloy,” said Jim Stromenger, a dispatcher with the Samson Police Department.

McLendon shot the 51-year-old welder to death at a lonesome spot on Alabama 52 before eluding police in Geneva and killing himself with a single gunshot to the head at a former workplace, Reliable Products.

“Whether Bruce was following him in an attempt to find out where he went, stop him, I don’t know. But I think he deserves recognition for what he did,” said Helms.

Helms was one of two officers involved in a dizzying, final shootout with McLendon at Reliable Products, where the killer ran inside and killed himself.

A divorced father with three grown children, Maloy lived in an old trailer off a dirt road on the outskirts of town. Christmas lights still hang from the side.

Maloy’s youngest child, 19-year-old Eva Maloy, helped his ex-wife and friends gather a few items from his home Friday as others made funeral arrangements. She’s not exactly sure what her father did that day, but the idea of him giving his life to help others wasn’t surprising.

“It sounds like him,” said Maloy. …..

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