Speaking publicly for the first time since Saturday’s deadly drama at Congregation Beth Israel, Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, 46, said he made the decision to run as their tormentor was melting down after hours of negotiating with the police.
on "CBS This Morning." “The exit was not too far away. I told them to go.”“I threw a chair at the gunman and I headed for the door,” Cytron-Walker said. “And all three of us were able to get out without even a shot being fired.”
“He is the most unassuming, egoless person you could ever meet,” Joel Schwitzer of the American Jewish Committee said. “He is the personification of nice guy.” Prior to Saturday, the most athletic thing Cytron-Walker had boasted about was taking part in a “24-hour dance marathon,” according toAlso, while still a student at the University of Michigan , he spent 48 hours living as a homeless person, his biography says.
“I am grateful for my family,” he wrote. “I am grateful for the CBI Community, the Jewish Community, the Human Community. I am grateful that we made it out. I am grateful to be alive.”
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