Ex-UFC Star & Mass Shooting Survivor Blasts Dana White's 'Oddball' WHCD Reaction

Retired UFC veteran Matt Brown, a survivor of a 2004 mass shooting, took issue with Dana White's take after the White House Correspondents Dinner shooting on Saturday. 

A man charged through the outside lobby of the Hilton Washington where the event was being hosted, and White was in attendance alongside President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and several other cabinet-level officials in the Trump Administration. 

The man discharged his weapon and struck an officer, hitting the bullet-resistant vest and fortunately causing no severe injury, before eventually being apprehended by Secret Service. And after the situation had been contained, White said he thought the incident was "f***ing awesome" and while he was told to get down, did not and was taking it all in. 

"I'm absolutely flabbergasted – completely blindsided – when he came out, when I saw the short little clip of him saying that was awesome," Brown told "MMA Fighting." "I think I have a little bit more of a justification in criticizing that being that I've been in a mass shooting before."

Brown attended a concert in Columbus, Ohio, in 2004 headlined by Damageplan. A man named Nathan Gale charged the stage and murdered the guitarist Darrell Abbott, wounded three more, and took a hostage prior to a Columbus police officer arriving and shooting him dead. 

"It is not awesome in any sense of the word," Brown continued. "It is not f***ing cool one bit. For him to say that, I did not appreciate that. Not that my opinion matters whether I appreciate it, but there's people whose lives are at risk there... A dude got shot. Maybe he survived but got shot. That's a traumatic experience for him. There's not a single f***ing thing awesome about that... That's the weridest, most oddball thing I've ever heard anybody say."

Brown opened up further on his own experience in 2004, explaining that he was standing near the stage when the initial shooting occurred, witnessing everything unfold including the moment when Gale was shot and killed.

"I watched [Gale] get his head blown off when Officer [James] Niggemeyer [shot him], which you've got to give him all the respect in the world, that dude's life has been traumatized by this incident," he said. "He had to come in and he had to make a decision in about two or three seconds because the shooter had a hostage. He has to make the decision, 'Do I pull the trigger or not?'"

Brown explained that Niggemeyer wasn't even on duty, but must have been in the area and seen the call. "He comes in and his whole life changed right there," Brown said.

"My point is that was a traumatic experience for a lot of people. Not even just the people that witnessed people get shot or the people that actually had to shoot like Officer Niggemeyer or the people [that didn't] see anything happen... I think it's very disrespectful to say that was an awesome experience for anyone."

He said it's not something he likes to bring up or preach about but it something that happened to him, and he cannot wrap his head around why anyone would say that. He said he knows plenty of people who have been dramatically affected by what happened that night, before expanding on his own first-hand experience.

"Someone got shot right next to me," Brown said. "As I was kind of running away or thinking about it, because I'm kind of running just because the crowd's running and I'm getting pushed and stuff. I'm like, 'I'm not going to get shot in the back, I'm going to turn around and face this guy,' and literally the second I did that, someone got shot right next to me."

Brown concluded by saying that he's not one to criticize people a lot for what has been said. But he cannot respect what he said this time, feeling it to be tone deaf and unnecessary.