Covington-Todd Scott was down on the floor staring into the eyes of a stranger. He didn’t think the gunshots that forced him to take safety were real initially, but then he smelled the gunpowder. The stranger was just another customer like Scott, and Scott knew he had to do something for both their sakes.

Scott drew his 9mm and fired back in the shooter’s (Jeffrey Scott Pitts) direction, following him out of the store to make sure he was gone after getting off about five or six shots.

“If I saved lives then I’m happy for that. You should save lives if you can. I’m not looking for anything for it, any recognition. To be quite honest with you, I just wish I could’ve slept this morning,” Scott said.

“There are good people everywhere that should be able to live without worrying about things like that,” Scott said.

It’s been a couple of days since the shooting, and Scott has had a hard time sleeping. Not only because of the incident, but because of all the attention he’s getting for it. The shooting is a constant stream of “what ifs” that play continuously through his mind like a never-ending Stephen King film.

Everything happened so fast. Scott had his back turned toward the door when the first gunshots were fired. He had to react quickly, but the entire sequence was a blur. Scott says after watching videotape he realized everything that occurred looked almost completely different than what he was seeing as it happened.

It was supposed to be an ordinary day. Scott had taken his fiance, Dusty, her two boys and the neighbor’s boys to lunch. After dropping the boys off at home, Scott and his fiance went shopping with Dusty’s youngest son. They returned home and the kids were playing their Xbox and he told them he was going to the store. He told them to turn the Xbox off because when he got back they’d watch a movie. It was movie night. So Scott went to Magnet Bottle Shop, where he was a regular.

Hours later after what could’ve been the last time Scott would see his soon-to-be wife and her children, they all watched a movie. It was a quick return to a sense of normalcy that wouldn’t last forever.
“It comes and goes. Sometimes it’s cool. Sometimes I cry. It is what it is. I just wanted to get home to them,” Scott said.

Scott, owner of The Social House in Porterdale, is a guy who believes in family and honesty, who loves to cook, a mere mortal like the rest of us, who just wanted to get home to his family.

“If something presents itself to where I may not be able to do that, I feel like I at least should be able to have a chance to change the outcome,” Scott said.

“I just wanted him out of the store,” Scott added. “I didn’t want him to be able to shoot Mun’s [Mun Hyuk Cha, owner of the store who passed away] wife or the guy I was staring at. I didn’t know what his intentions were after that.”

A hero is someone who stands out for his or her courage. Rockdale police, and possibly many others, believe that Scott is a hero. Scott does not think of himself as a hero. He just did what he thought should be done.
Scott is a hero, for that very reason. He did what needed to be done when many others would not have had the courage. Todd Scott, you're a hometown hero.