Sutherland Springs hero featured in NRA promos Group is holding its annual meetings this weekend in Dallas

The First Baptist Church﻿ of Sutherland Springs, where 26 people died Nov. 5 in a mass shooting, has been turned into a memorial. At right, crosses outside the church east of San Antonio bear the names of those killed, as do white chairs placed in the spot where ﻿ parishioners died inside the house of worship. Services are now conducted in a makeshift church. ﻿﻿ less The First Baptist Church﻿ of Sutherland Springs, where 26 people died Nov. 5 in a mass shooting, has been turned into a memorial. At right, crosses outside the church east of San Antonio bear the names of ... more Photo: Karen Warren, Staff Photo: Karen Warren, Staff Image 1 of / 81 Caption Close Sutherland Springs hero featured in NRA promos 1 / 81 Back to Gallery

Just days before the National Rifle Association is to begin its annual meetings in Dallas, the organization is featuring a Texas hero in newly launched videos to recruit new members.

Stephen Willeford, a lifetime NRA member who shot the man who killed 26 people in Sutherland Springs last year, is featured in the new 60-second video recounting what happened on Nov. 5, 2017.

"My daughter came into the bedroom and she said, 'Dad, there's a man in black tactical gear shooting up the baptist church.'" Willeford says in the NRATV video with the church where the actual shooting occurred in the background. "Every one of those shots, to me, represented one of my neighbors, one of my friends."

Willeford says in the video that while the gunman had an AR-15, so did he and he was determined to do something about what was happening.

On the morning the gunman opened fire on the church, Willeford responded by getting his own weapon and confronting the shooter. Police say Willeford wounded the killer, who then hopped into his vehicle to flee. Willeford and another man Johnny Langendorff pursued the killer who later crashed his vehicle and killed himself.

Willeford has given few media interviews since the event, but has begun to become more involved politically of late.

Earlier this week he wrote an op-ed piece in the Dallas Morning News defending the NRA's decision to come to Dallas for its annual meeting and publicly opposing gun control group efforts to restrict gun rights.

"I am also proof that the NRA's familiar mantra is true: The best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," Willeford writes in the piece welcoming the NRA to the city.

Willeford also traveled to Houston in early April to play a role in U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign re-election kickoff event.

Jeremy Wallace writes about state politics and government for the Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter at @JeremySWallace.