According to witnesses and local police in Chapin, South Carolina, two United States Army soldiers were shot and killed at a bar while helping a woman who was being brutally attacked.

Authorities are saying that Staff Sgt. Charles Allen Judge, Jr., and Sgt. 1st Class Jonathan Michael Prins, 29, were both killed after Joseph Elijah Mills, 25, shot them outside the doors of the Frayed Knot Bar & Grill early Sunday.

The fight with Mills and the woman started outside the bar. When the soldiers tried to stop it, that’s when shots were fired.

The murderer fled afterward but was eventually captured by deputies in the afternoon.

More from the Army Times:

Justin Brooks, the owner of Frayed Knot, said Mills was kicking and hitting the victim on the ground. A group of people threw him off her, and while he was on the ground, he fired shots into the air.

“When [Judge and Prins] get in within two feet of him — they both have their hands up trying to talk to him — and he just shoots them in cold blood,” Brooks said. “And then just walks off like nothing happened. Walked off like he was shopping at Walmart, right down the aisle. Put a shirt over his head so people couldn’t see him and just walked right off.”

“They are definitely heroes,” he added.

The South Carolina National Guard says Judge was a staff sergeant and had served with them for 22 years. He was an engineer instructor in the 218th Regiment Leadership Command at McCrady Training Center.

Brian Deese, who served with Judge and was his supervisor in the guard, said he’s not surprised his friend would take action.

“He’d do it 100 times again,” Deese said. “He’s a hero.”

If you’d like to contribute to a GoFundMe for one of the victims, who leaves behind a wife and three young children, click here.