Airman who returned fire at gunman was thinking of ‘everybody else’

On a late summer day in the driveway of his home, Senior Airman Harrison Friar came face-to-face with a gunman on a rampage through his neighborhood.

The man, Dennis Burnell, lived directly across the street from Friar and had just fatally shot two neighbors, authorities later said, when Friar confronted the man. The sound of the shots had sent the Air Force intelligence troop into his driveway carrying his own personal firearm.

Both Burnell and Friar were armed with pistols. As the two men looked at each other across their neighborhood street, Burnell took aim at Friar and fired.

“My first thought was definitely not my own safety, it was just concern for everybody else,” Friar told Task & Purpose on Thursday. “And then once I realized that everybody else is in at least a semi-safe posi