Thomas McCary: Cincinnati Concealed Carry Permit Holder Thwarts Gunman

Thomas McCary, 62, shot four people, including a 1-year-old boy. McCary, who was firing with a gun in each hand, was stopped by a Cincinnati area resident with a concealed carry permit. The legal gun owner returned McCary’s fire, wounding the suspect and putting an end to the carnage, according to FOX19.

Thomas McCary has been charged with four counts of felonious assault and is being held in a Cincinnati jail without bail pending trial. On Sunday evening around 8 p.m., the suspected shooter was allegedly arguing with a with a woman when her brother, Patrick Ewing, approached the pair. McCary then pulled out a.38-caliber pistol and fired three shots at Ewing, police reports state.

Patrick Ewing, unharmed by McCary’s shot, grabbed his own gun, squeezed the trigger, and hit his attacker in the leg. Injured and bleeding, McCary then reportedly retreated to his home and grabbed a second gun. When he returned to the scene of the shooting, he was holding a gun in each hand.

McCary allegedly fired in the direction of the woman with whom he had been arguing, Jeaneta Walker, her 1-year-old baby boy, and a third man. Ewing then reportedly fired his gun again to distract McCary so the others could run to safety inside an apartment. Before returning to his own apartment, the suspected shooter fired several more times, hitting no one.

After being transported to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, McCary was arrested around 2:30 a.m.

According to the Crime Prevention Research Center, there were 391,816 concealed carry permit holders in Ohio as of July of last year. Residents with concealed carry permits have reportedly jumped by as much as 50 percent in 2015. More Ohio woman have reportedly gotten their CCW permit, an uptick in the southern Ohio area of Chillicothe also occurred, and was likely prompted by the possibility of a serial killer murdering multiple women in the area of the course of several years.

Rob Truitt, an NRA-certified firearms instructor and owner of Red 7 Firearms in Chillicothe, offered free courses to women in the wake of the area killings. Truitt said he has had more female students enroll in his myriad of firearms training courses and noted that the ladies make great students because many are novices and have not picked up any “bad habits” in their shooting techniques.

Do you think concealed carry permits help curtail crime?

[Image via: Shutterstock, Hamilton County Jail, and Tara Dodrill]