LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Ryan Guidus, a Southern California father, showed exceptional courage as he escaped the shooting at Cook’s Corner bar in Orange County with his seven-month-old daughter.
Guidus was in the eatery, enjoying a leisurely evening with his daughter and his mother-in-law, when he heard the gunshots, on Wednesday, August 23.
Initially, he thought the gunshots were fireworks, but to his horror, he realized a retired law enforcement officer was firing the rounds, per ABC News.
How did Ryan Guidus come out of the open firing?
Guidus is a regular at the bar since he was three. The moment he realized the firing, he reacted instinctively and snatched his daughter, Olive from the stroller.
He said in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, as quoted his ABC News, “I just reached into the stroller and ejected my daughter out of that thing, ripped her out of there as fast as I could.”
He recalled the terrifying moment and said, “It was all a blur, it happened so fast.”
Clutching his daughter to his chest, the 36-year-old father then ran away from the bar’s patio to the hillside trees in the back of the property.
He found several other customers hiding among the trees along an embankment. This was not the end of his nightmare as he heard more shots from the restaurant.
Guidus then handed Olive to a man standing nearby for a split second and jumped 10 ft (3.05 meters) down before grabbing the baby back.
He was then helped by mountain bikers, who then helped him navigate the brush with one lifting a tree branch so that he could escape with his daughter and mother-in-law.
When they reached a nearby parking lot, he borrowed a cell phone from another mountain biker to call his wife and his parents. His phone was left in the stroller.
The baby, who was hungry by this time, started crying. Guidus shared in the interview, “I can’t stop hugging and kissing her. I obviously pray to God that she doesn’t remember this. I assume she won’t.”
For the brave father, Cook’s Corner is a place that evokes nostalgia. Apart from visiting the place since he was a tot, he also took his now-wife to the eatery for their first date.
Showing his solidarity with Cook’s Corner, Guidus claimed that he would visit the place as soon as it reopens.
He said, “I’ve been going to Cook’s since I was 3 years old, with my parents on the back of their motorcycle,” beforeadding, “It’s a landmark, it’s a place that we love to visit."
Who was the shooter in the Orange County shooting?
Police identified John Snowling, a retired police sergeant in the Ventura Police Department in Southern California, as the perpetrator.
The authorities said Snowling killed three people, including his estranged wife’s dining companion and a man who approached Snowling while he was getting additional guns from his truck.
Snowling’s wife, Marie, filed for divorce in December 2022 and they were going to have a hearing in November.
The victims who died are John Leehey, 67, of Irvine, California; Tonya Clark, 49, of Scottsdale, Arizona; and Glen Sprowl Jr, 53, of Stanton, California.
The police, however, shot and killed Snowling within minutes of his gun attack.
Per NBC Los Angeles, six other victims were injured in the shooting.
