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Locals aiming to help ‘Young Hero’ |
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Tuesday, 24 November 2009 |
By KELLY DANIELS
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They call him “Mississippi’s Young Hero.”
And by hero, they mean the 18-year-old rescuer of 22 lives.
On Sept. 1, Kaleb Eulls, a quarterback and honor student at Yazoo County High School, was sleeping on a bus on the way to school when his sister woke him up.
A girl who was about four years younger than Eulls had pulled out a .380 caliber semiautomatic handgun, threatening everyone around her and claiming she had been bullied.
Without a second thought, Eulls, who had just verbally committed to playing football for Mississippi State University, stood up and distracted the girl while the students escaped from the back door.
“It was instinct,” he said, explaining his fearlessness.
In fact, Eulls can’t think of anything that makes him afraid.
“I still had her attention... I tried to make a move toward her, getting close as I could to her. She looked outside the window at the students running around ...,” he said.
That was Eulls’ chance to take control of the potentially life-threatening situation and he took it, tackling her until he had control of the gun.
The entire incident was videotaped.
The following week at school, Eulls received his share of high-fives when he walked down the hall.
If he signs with the Bulldog football team, Eulls will play on the defensive line and will major in mathematics. He says he wants to be an accountant or teach.
His mother, Ora Eulls, remembers the day she learned of her son’s big deed.
“I was terrified and shaking and scared when I heard about the way he did it,” she said.
But, like any mother, she was proud that he saved so many lives.
“It was a happy occasion, but it also could have been a sad occasion,” she said.
After that day on Sept. 1, local chaplain Herbert Turner heard the news and took Eulls under his wing as a mentor.
“He looks to me for advice and motivation, but he’s a self-motivator,” Turner said.
To jumpstart Eulls’ college fund, Turner is holding a community-wide rummage sale on Dec. 5 starting at 7 a.m. The sale will take place at Peter’s Rock Church Life Center at 223 Martin Luther King Drive in Starkville.
Household goods, clothing and baked goods are all acceptable as donations.
For more information about the rummage sale, call (662) 312-2163.
Turner says he wants to give as much as he can to Eulls, who risked his life and all his promising roads ahead to protect his fellow man.
“Words just can’t explain what that young man did,” Turner said.
But he knows the significance of what Eulls did, because, according to Turner, he would have done the same thing without fear.
“Today, people are not standing up for each other. They’re letting the wrong things exist and go on,” he said.
After hearing that Eulls did what so few do today, Turner had a little more hope in people. “I want to open that door a little wider, make more headlines and give other people the encouragement to do similar things,” he said.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 25 November 2009 )
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