The 52-year-old man killed during the Sunday shooting inside a California church was the primary care physician of Browns fullback Johnny Stanton.
Dr. John Cheng is being hailed as a hero after charging the gunman in the attack early Sunday afternoon at Geneva Presbyterian Church in the Orange County city of Laguna Woods. Five people were injured in the shooting, four critically.
Cheng specialized in sports medicine.
“I just found out the person killed in the Laguna Woods shooting yesterday was my primary care physician, Dr. John Cheng,” Stanton wrote on Twitter. “Absolute hero. He attacked the gunman and helped save so many in that church. I just wanted his name to be known. He will be missed.”
Cheng is survived by his wife and two children.
Dr. Cheng “did everything he could to disable the assailant,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said, via NBC Los Angeles.
“He sacrificed himself so others could live,” Spitzer said.