VIGILANTE JUSTICE--AMEN:

Alert trucker: 'I'm no hero' (CNN, October 24, 2002)

The truck driver who called police early Thursday after spotting a Chevrolet Caprice wanted in connection with the Washington-area sniper slayings said he's "no hero," and plans to share any reward money he receives with victims of the attacks.

Ron Lantz said he noticed the car, which matched the description given in news coverage, after pulling in to a rest area near Frederick. He discussed what to do with another driver, and then decided to call 9-1-1.

"They told me 'We'll be there as soon as possible,'" he said. "They said, 'You stay right where you're at.'"

Then, somebody else at the scene suggested that Lantz move his truck to block the exit from the rest area, to prevent the car from leaving, which he did. [...]

"I'm no hero," he said. "I just want people to think what I did was what I should have done."

Authorities had posted a $500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the sniper suspects, believed responsible for killing 10 people and wounding three others since October 2.

Lantz, who is just five runs short of retiring as a truck driver, said if any of the reward money comes his way, "I'd probably take it back and give it to the people who were shot."

"At least half of it, anyway."

He's sure as heck a hero in our book. It becomes increasingly evident that ordinary citizens will be as important, in some ways more so, to defeating terrorism as the authorities. One sure wishes he'd had a gun. Posted by Orrin Judd at October 24, 2002 11:37 PM