http://www.abcnews.go.com/onair/2020/transcripts/2020_990928_texasgunman_trans.html

Monday, Sept. 27, 1999

(This is an unedited, uncorrected transcript.)

JACK FORD, ABCNEWS Good evening. Connie and I welcome you to 20/20 Monday. Tonight—a story about a teenager whose new—found faith in God stopped a terrible slaughter. It happened during a deadly encounter that shook Texas and the entire country some two weeks ago. A madman opened fire inside a church filled mostly with teenagers, shooting 14 people before turning a gun on himself. You’re about to hear the exclusive story of what that was like from those who lived through the madness.

CONNIE CHUNG, ABCNEWS Can you imagine the helpless feeling wondering who would be next to die as the gunman randomly targeted victim after victim? But one teenager somehow found the courage to confront the gunman. ABCNEWS religion correspondent Peggy Wehmeyer has the inspiring story of this young hero who stood up against the deadly rage armed only with his faith.

REV AL MEREDITH, WEDGWOOD BAPTIST CHURCH Seven precious lives. Such a cost. Our children kneeling and hovering in terror as bullets are flying over them.

PEGGY WEHMEYER, ABCNEWS (VO) Yesterday, as worshipers crowded into Fort Worth’s Wedgwood Baptist Church, memories of the killing spree that claimed seven lives just 12 days ago hung in the air. (Congregation singing) (VO) Just across town at another Sunday service, 19—year—old Jeremiah Neitz is still haunted by very personal memories of the bloody massacre.

JEREMIAH NEITZ I’m still scared, still nervous.

PEGGY WEHMEYER (on camera) What are you scared of?

JEREMIAH NEITZ It’s - I don’t know really, just a feeling of uneasiness surrounding me.

PEGGY WEHMEYER (VO) Jeremiah has reason to feel uneasy. In a deadly face—off with a gunman, he stood his ground and became an unlikely hero who may have saved dozens of lives. (Congregation singing) (VO) At a youth rally here, nearly 400 teenagers had gathered to pray and celebrate their faith when a man calmly smoking a cigarette and armed with two guns entered the church and opened fire.

1ST WOMAN Oh, my God.

911 CALLER There’s a shooter at Wedgwood Baptist Church.

MAN Multiple gunshots. Lots of people hurt.

1ST TEEN GIRL Candy (ph) got shot. (Crying)

2ND WOMAN Where is he?

2ND TEEN GIRL We thought it was over, and he started up again. It was horrible.

JEREMIAH NEITZ I was thinking, "Oh, my gosh, what is this? This ain’t real. This is - this is just a dream. This ain’t happening."

PEGGY WEHMEYER (VO) Jeremiah Neitz is no stranger to pain. His parents divorced when he was very young. He’s been a troubled teen, and he’s had run ins with the law. (on camera) What would you say has been the toughest thing for you to deal with as a teenager?

JEREMIAH NEITZ When I had my real dad run out.

PEGGY WEHMEYER You missed him?

JEREMIAH NEITZ Yes. I haven’t had an easy life.

PEGGY WEHMEYER (VO) Not long ago, Jeremiah’s luck bottomed out. His girlfriend became pregnant. He was out of a job, and he faced eviction. In desperation, Jeremiah turned to a place he had once found comfort—the church.

REV ADAM HAMMOND (PH) BAPTIST YOUTH MINISTER I felt a kind of a special bond with him, and I just felt this is a man in need here.

PEGGY WEHMEYER (VO) Jeremiah reached out to Adam Hammond, a Baptist youth pastor who took him under his wing. But Adam knew from the start, Jeremiah would be a difficult case.

REV ADAM HAMMOND He’s a tough guy, you know. "Nothing bothers me," this kind of thing. And I drove him back to church. And I said, "Lord, I just don’t know what we’re going to do about Jeremiah." I asked God, "Lord, I need some help."

PEGGY WEHMEYER (VO) Adam found Jeremiah an apartment, helped him pay his rent and now takes him to a local food bank for groceries until Jeremiah can find a job. Three months ago, Jeremiah started going back to church.

JEREMIAH NEITZ I felt happier when I was in church. Basically, they were just there when you need them.

PEGGY WEHMEYER (VO) Both Jeremiah and Adam were looking forward to attending a special youth rally at Wedgwood Baptist Church on September 15. During an announcement, the teens were told to expect a surprise during a skit.

JEREMIAH NEITZ All this was full, and this was where my youth—our youth sat right here and right here.

PEGGY WEHMEYER (VO) A Christian rock band was playing.

JEREMIAH NEITZ I was singing, praying, listening to the music.

PEGGY WEHMEYER (VO) Until he heard something that sounded like firecrackers.

JEREMIAH NEITZ We heard gunfire. It was going off everywhere. It was like -just like pop, pop because he was so close. He was walking back and forth right here, up and down the aisle right there.

PEGGY WEHMEYER (VO) As the kids hid under the pews, many of them thought the gunfire was fake and that gunman was the surprise in a skit.

JEREMIAH NEITZ They were all down on the floor, but they kept - especially the ones down there in the front kept on popping their heads up, like going "shoot me, shoot me," then popping back down after he shot.

PEGGY WEHMEYER (on camera) Why?

JEREMIAH NEITZ Because they didn’t think it was real because everybody up here thought it was real because we saw the girl right behind us get shot already. That was like one of the first people that got shot.

PEGGY WEHMEYER (VO) Adam, who was on the floor in front of that girl, knew the gunfire was real because he was covered in her blood.

REV ADAM HAMMOND I felt like I was going to die, and I didn’t want to. And the man just kept walking in the back, and he kept saying, this Baptist religion is BS. It’s all propaganda.

JEREMIAH NEITZ This is a BS religion, Baptists suck—all different kind of profanity.

PEGGY WEHMEYER (on camera) And what did you think of that?

JEREMIAH NEITZ It made me - it made me mad really.

PEGGY WEHMEYER (VO) Suddenly, Jeremiah says he got off the floor and sat on the pews.

JEREMIAH NEITZ I got up like this because - and I just started praying. I was sitting here like this, rocking back and forth, just praying.

PEGGY WEHMEYER Why in the world would you get off the floor and up in this chair where you’re a sitting target?

JEREMIAH NEITZ I don’t know. I really don’t know.

REV ADAM HAMMOND And I was just grabbing his pants, "get down," you know? Get down, get down, get down." And he just didn’t pay any attention to me.

PEGGY WEHMEYER (VO) In fact, Jeremiah stood up, and in a moment of courage, the troubled teenager, who until recently had abandoned his faith, tried to convince the gunman that what he needed was faith.

JEREMIAH NEITZ I said, "Sir, what you need is Jesus Christ in your life," and he just - just went limp, just fell right onto the thing. I was - like I just shot him.

PEGGY WEHMEYER (VO) Adam, still under the pew, was terrified.

REV ADAM HAMMOND I thought, in the next second, I was going to see blood running down his britches leg, and he was going to fall to the floor because of the rage that the man was in.

JEREMIAH NEITZ He pointed the gun right at my face. And I said - I put my hands up like this. I said, "Sir, you can shoot me for all you want, but I know where I’m going, I’m going to heaven. Where are you going?"

And he...

PEGGY WEHMEYER (VO) Jeremiah says even with a gun to his head, he felt a strange calm.

JEREMIAH NEITZ I just felt a secureness within me that nothing was going to happen to me. I felt at ease.

REV ADAM HAMMOND He said, "F" you, and that’s when I heard the last shot, and I thought for sure he shot Jeremiah.

PEGGY WEHMEYER (VO) But instead, with enough ammunition in his vest to kill dozens more, the gunman, Larry Ashbrook, shot himself. In the chaos that followed, Jeremiah helped several wounded teenagers and then quietly slipped away. A week would pass before Dr Al Meredith, pastor of Wedgwood Baptist, even knew the name of man who stopped the rampage in his church.

REV AL MEREDITH Jeremiah, Al Meredith. Tell me your last name.

JEREMIAH NEITZ Neitz.

PEGGY WEHMEYER (on camera) Jeremiah, do you think what you did was a courageous thing?

JEREMIAH NEITZ I don’t think I did anything courageous. If anybody stopped the shooter it was Jesus, God. That was the person that stopped the shooter.

PEGGY WEHMEYER Some people would say, aren’t you mad at God? Where was God when all that happened?

JEREMIAH NEITZ God was there.

PEGGY WEHMEYER So you’re not angry with God?

JEREMIAH NEITZ No, I’m not. Never was, never will be.

PEGGY WEHMEYER That’s pretty strong faith that you have.

JEREMIAH NEITZ I hope so.

PEGGY WEHMEYER (VO) Jeremiah may need that faith now more than ever. He hasn’t found a job yet. And any day now, he’ll become a father. In the meantime, he’s wrestling with images he cannot shake.

JEREMIAH NEITZ When I’m sleeping, I see like demons and the devil and stuff trying to tear away - trying to tear out my flesh. That’s all I see when I sleep now since this happened. Then when I wake up, I just pray and I go back to sleep, it goes away.

PEGGY WEHMEYER (VO) Many of the teens from Jeremiah’s youth group are also gripped by nightmares. So yesterday, Adam brought Jeremiah and the rest of the youth from their church back to the scene of the massacre.

JEREMIAH NEITZ Please help everybody that’s in here and everybody that was in here that night to not have bad dreams or bad thoughts.

PEGGY WEHMEYER (VO) For all their grief, Jeremiah and the others are determined not to let this tragedy destroy their faith.

JACK FORD Fort Worth and the congregation of Wedgwood Baptist Church are working hard to put the shooting behind them. The pastor of the church says as much as $50,000 was offered for videotapes of the shooting captured by cameras inside the church. But instead of selling those tapes, the decision was made to destroy them. And one final footnote—relatives of gunman Larry Ashbrook have donated his body for medical research. We’ll be right back.

How to receive a new life in Christ.

Back to "Personal Testamonies".

Back to home page.

Email: [email protected]