"'Run, Hide, Fight'... But Riley Howell could neither run nor hide. The gunman was in his classroom."

"So, the authorities said, he charged at the gunman, who had already fired several rounds, and pinned him down until police officers arrived. 'But for [Riley's] work, the assailant may not have been disarmed,' Chief Kerr Putney of the Charlotte-Mecklenberg Police Department said of Mr. Howell, who was among six victims of a mass shooting at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte campus Tuesday evening. 'Unfortunately, he gave his life in the process. But his sacrifice saved lives.'... 'He is my hero,' said Mr. Howell’s girlfriend of nearly six years, Lauren Westmoreland, who said she was overcome with grief. 'But he’s just my angel now, as well.'... Mr. Howell had considered a career in the military or firefighting before enrolling at the university, where he was an environmental studies student. In a statement, his parents said he was a fearless athlete with a sturdy frame who relished a challenge, 'whether it be jumping from the highest cliff into the water below or power lifting competitions at the gym.' 'Once committed to something,' they said, 'he never gave up, never gave in, and gave everything he had.'"

From "U.N.C. Charlotte Student Couldn’t Run, So He Tackled the Gunman" (NYT).

ADDED: I don't think the NYT should make assertions about what was going on inside Howell's head. Yes, there's the conventional message "run, hide, fight," which prioritizes your options, and what Howell did was the first thing on the list that was possible for him, but you can't assume that he would have maintained the conventional priority if he had had other options. The headline — "... Couldn't Run, So He Tackled..." — and the excerpt I quoted — "could neither run nor hide. So... he charged..." — both purport to convey his decisionmaking and to ascribe a preference for saving himself that we have no way to know he had. The man is a hero, and there's no reason to diminish his story with a made-up presumption that he was following the advice to run or hide if you can.

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."