A man being heralded as a hero for intervening in a recent hate-fueled shooting in California spent his formative years in East Texas.

Dr. John Cheng, who graduated from Marshall High School in 1987 and whose best friend runs a martial arts business in Tyler, died Sunday after tackling a man who had opened fire on parishioners during a lunch at a Laguna Woods church.

According to the Associated Press, the gunman chained the doors to the church Sunday and put super glue in keyholes to seal it. He was armed with two handguns and three bags containing incendiary devices and extra ammunition. He began shooting and in the ensuing chaos, the 52-year-old Cheng tackled the shooter, allowing other parishioners to subdue him and tie him up with extension cords.

Cheng died and five people were wounded.

Laguna Woods Sheriff Don Barnes called Cheng’s heroism “a meeting of good versus evil” that probably saved the lives “of upwards of dozens of people.”

Brandon Jones, who owns Tyler Kung Fu & Fitness, had been friends with Cheng since the pair met at David Crockett Elementary School in Marshall. He said the hero moniker for his closest friend is one that does not surprise him.

“It’s completely befitting for John to be known as a hero,” Jones said. “He would have been embarrassed about it and he would have shrugged it off if he were here today, but that’s what a real hero does.”

Cheng

Dr. John Cheng, left, and Brandon Jones, right, pose with kung fu instructor Thomas Leverett.

Jones said Cheng was at the church in Laguna Woods to honor his mother.

“And he did so but in the most ultimate way — saving her and so many others,” he said.

Jones said Cheng moved with his family from New Jersey to Marshall when he was 9 years old.

“We became friends in fourth grade,” he said. “He was sitting behind me. He was drawing like Batman and Superman characters. He was a good artist.”

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The trait led to a fast friendship. Jones said he was a writer, while Cheng was an artist. So, Jones would create stories around the pictures “of the heroes” drawn by Cheng.

“There we were meeting together over fictional heroes Batman and Superman, and now my friend died being a hero,” Jones said.

Jones and Cheng graduated in the same class from Marshall High School. Afterward, Jones said he went to Stephen F. Austin State University, and Cheng went to Baylor before becoming a doctor and moving to California.

Jones said martial arts training had been important to him and to Cheng since they were young. They met their kung fu teacher when they were 10 or 11 years old, he said.

“My fondest memory is of us training in martial arts together in his backyard, and then watching kung fu movies at night while we ate his mom’s wonderful food,” Jones said.

The training, Jones said, had prepared Cheng for a situation just like the one he encountered at a lunch held by Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church, which worships at Geneva Presbyterian Church in the community of Laguna Woods, as a shooter motivated by a hatred toward Taiwan attacked.

“We spoke often of active shooter situations and dealing with those dangerous situations — of course, never thinking we would actually have to deal with it,” Jones said.

The Harrison County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday released a statement about the former Marshall resident’s actions during the California church shooting.

“If not for Dr. Cheng’s quick bravery Sunday, many more would’ve been injured or killed,” Sheriff BJ Fletcher said. “Although Dr. Cheng had moved on from our community, we still mourn a hero that sacrificed himself to safe others.”

Jones called Cheng one of the “kindest, gentlest people I know.”

“My heart is grieved. He was my best friend,” Jones said. “We cried, sweated and bled together. His family was my family, and my family was his. I’m grieved for his children and family, his mom and his brother.”

Multimedia Journalist

Multimedia journalist Jessica Payne covers several counties in East Texas. In 2011, she left her hometown Houston for East Texas. In 2016, she left the 9-5 office routine to pursue a passion for sharing inspiring stories and engaging with the community.

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