A Stanton man who died trying to stop a rampaging shooter in 2023 at a popular Trabuco Canyon roadhouse will be awarded North America’s top honor for civilian heroism.
Read more UCLA QB Iamaleava shows leadership, toughness as Bruins prepare for Maryland
Glen Sprowl Jr., who rushed at the heavily armed gunman at Cook’s Corner with only a pocketknife, is receiving the Carnegie Medal posthumously, the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission announced Monday. Sprowl, who was 53, will be joined by 15 other new recipients across the United States and Canada.
The medal recognizes individuals who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree to save or attempt to save others. Besides the medal, the award carries a $7,500 grant to Sprowl’s family.
“At the end of the day, (Sprowl) heard shots fired and went toward the gunfire,” said Jewels Phraner, director of administration at the Pittsburgh-based Carnegie organization. “He distracted the gunman long enough for them to take cover, for people to flee, for police to get there. … He (saved) people by giving them time.”
John Patrick Snowling, a 59-year-old retired Ventura Police Department sergeant, stormed into the popular bar wearing a black baseball cap and holding a revolver in his right hand and a semiautomatic gun in his left on Aug. 23, 2023.
Snowling, in the midst of a divorce, was searching for his estranged wife, Marie, who was at Cook’s Corner during the $8 “Spaghetti Night.” Without word, Snowling fired a round into her jaw and then let fly a barrage of bullets throughout the building. Marie Snowling survived the attack.
The gunman then went outside and retrieved a shotgun and a third handgun from his truck, witnesses said.
According to the Carnegie commission’s investigation, Sprowl, who worked as a shop manager, was sitting outside the front of the bar when Snowling came out.
Surveillance video captured Sprowl entering the bar shortly after the assailant exited. Sprowl then came back outside, moving around the building toward the parking lot. As he did, he encountered several people and tried to rally them to pursue Snowling, according to the commission.
Read more Rams WR Puka Nacua inactive for Monday’s game vs. Giants with hip injury
Carrying a pocketknife, Sprowl then continued alone toward the shooter, reaching the base of a ramp to the parking lot. Snowling fired at Sprowl with a shotgun, hitting him four times in the upper body. Sprowl collapsed and died at the scene. Snowling went on to shoot two other people before Orange County sheriff’s deputies arrived about four minutes later.
Deputies killed Snowling in a wild, adrenaline-fueled gun battle that left more than 70 spent rounds. They found a loaded Beretta 950B .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol tucked in Snowling’s back pants pocket. The gunman had killed three people, including Sprowl, and injured six more in the melee.
Sprowl’s next of kin, an adult son, declined to have the Carnegie commission release his contact information, saying he wished privacy.
In earlier interviews, Sprowl’s friends and family described him as a guy with a tough exterior but a big heart, the type of friend who would drop everything to help someone in need.
Sprowl was the father of three children, two sons and daughter who live in Arizona. He had plans to move there to be closer to them and start a motorcycle parts company, friends said.
Phraner said the medal takes a few months to be manufactured and will be awarded to Sprowl’s family in a local ceremony yet to be determined. Each recipient gets his or her own ceremony.
Sprowl is in good company in the latest group of recipients. They include a 24-year-old man who rescued an injured hang glider that crashed on the side of a mountain in Duncan, British Columbia; a 19-year-old woman who was shot and killed while trying to rescue her neighbor from an estranged partner in Peoria, Illinois; and a 68-year-old grandfather who went back into a burning house in Stockton to save his grandson. The boy ultimately was rescued by his father, who also went into the house. The grandfather died in the fire.
With the latest group of recipients, the Carnegie Medal has been awarded to 10,597 people since the inception of the fund in 1904. Established by industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, the fund has given out more than $47 million in one-time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits and other assistance, according to the organization.
Read more Judge won’t block Trump administration from giving SpaceX acres of wildlife refuge in land swap