Metalhead Stops Gun Attack at Concert

Hopefully this feel-good story will do something to dispel the nagging stereotype that metalheads are anything but stand-up human beings: Darin Wall, bass player for Greyhawk, stopped a gun attack at a show, taking a shot to the leg in the process but preventing anyone else from getting hurt.

According to Boise, ID-based TV station KTVB, Wall and a member of another band had their eyes on Ethan Byrd during a show at Boise venue The Shredder after witnessing him pointing his finger at audience members and pretending to shoot. They decided to confront him. “I don’t know if anyone else saw it,” Wall said. “I got a weird feeling right away. Sometimes you confront really wasted people, or really drunk, they’re really angry and they’re shouting and they’re belligerent. This guy was really cold, I would say.”

After keeping Byrd outside the venue for some time, Byrd eventually left… but came back with a loaded pistol tucked into his pants. Wall watched as Byrd reached behind his back to grab the gun, and instinctively went for Byrd’s legs in an attempt to take him down, resulting in a tussle. And that’s when the shot rang out. “The gun was in the pocket of his pants, and he shot me through his pants, and got me in the upper thigh,” Wall recounted.

Byrd ran from the scene, but it wasn’t long at all before Boise police apprehended him nearby.

Wall was taken to a hospital, and he is now back in Seattle recovering at home. “I did get lucky with the location of the shot. It’s in a place that’s not damaging anything that’s gonna be permanent, we don’t think,” he said.

Wall added that he harbors no ill will against Boise or The Shredder and plans to return, but cautions against taking life for granted. “Hug your family members, hug your friends. Tomorrow is never guaranteed, so be good to each other.”

You can watch a TV news report on the incident below, including an interview with Wall.

[via Metal Injection]