DC ‘hero’ who disarmed subway shooter says she knew she needed to remove gun from train

A Washington, D.C. woman is being hailed as a hero after she disarmed a shooting suspect who entered a subway car she was sitting on Wednesday after he allegedly shot four people near the Potomac Avenue subway station.

The suspect, who goes by the name of Isaiah Trotman, allegedly shot and killed a subway employee and wounded three others in the shootout before boarding a stopped carriage when the door to the station was opened.

Robert Cunningham was identified as a member of the Underground who died from his wounds. The rest of the victims are expected to be all right.

“He got into our car and said, ‘I won’t hurt anyone, I won’t hurt anyone,’” Shante Trumpet told FOX 5. “He started walking up and down the aisles, he started screaming. He began to say that he was a veterinarian. He was just, like, he was manic. He climbed into people’s faces, one man tried to leave. He said you weren’t going anywhere.”

DC METRO EMPLOYEE KILLED TRYING TO STOP ‘HEROIC’ SHOOTER, SUSPECT DESIGNATED

Shante Trumpet said she was focused on getting the gun away from the suspect and leaving the train.
(FOX 5 DC)

She said that all she could think about as the suspect got into her car was, “I have to get this gun off this train.”

Washington Metropolitan Police officers investigate a shooting at the Potomac Avenue subway station in southeast Washington on Wednesday, February 1, 2023. 31-year-old Isaiah Trotman was detained for riots.
(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Truba said he sat next to her on the train and seemed to loosen his grip on the gun..

“I didn’t listen to anything he said,” she told FOX 5. “I just looked at the gun and looked at the door. And I saw that he was not holding a gun. thinking that I could grab him enough and get him out of here and take him away from him.”

Trouble said she snatched the gun from him and ran to the door, but he grabbed her. It was then that at least two other passengers, including Timur Skrynnikov, who told FOX 5 he had never been in a similar situation before and felt he was reacting “instinctively”, grabbed Trotman.

She grabbed her gun again and ran out of the subway car, throwing it onto the tracks. Shortly thereafter, Trotman was arrested and charged with murder.

Her fellow travelers hailed her as a “hero”.

“I had no idea that the woman I got on the train with… would save the life of me and many others who were on the train,” passenger Tyrell Knight told FOX 5.

SUSPECTED IN DETENTION AFTER DC METRO TRANSIT WORKER SHOT, KILLED; OTHER 3 INJURED

The suspect shot and killed 64-year-old subway employee Robert Cunningham, who was trying to intervene when the suspect ran into a woman.
(FOX 5 DC)

“To be honest, it’s surreal,” Trumpet said. “I feel like I’m telling someone else’s story, honestly.”

She said that Trotman was not a big guy and she felt that without a gun, he was no threat.

“When he no longer had a gun, he didn’t attack me,” she said. “He just grabbed me, but once the gun was gone, he was no longer a threat.”

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“I will never forget her,” Knight told the radio station. “She will always be the person who saved my life the day a man nearly took my life.”

Pilar Arias of Fox News contributed to this report.