Shooting Down the Street

I found out that living in the suburbs of a city with 11 million people doesn't exclude us from crime.

I went to go rent a movie and grab a refreshment beverage at the gas station down the street from our house Friday night. It was about 7pm and as I pulled into the gas station I noticed a commotion. A guy had just come running out of the store and ran over to this woman that was on the ground next to a parking space. I pulled in and parked my car.

When I got out the lady was screaming bloody murder. The boyfriend was leaning over her asking what happened and trying to calm her down. I asked if she was okay and he said that someone stole her car and had been shot.

Apparently the couple parked their car on the side of the building, but still in plain view of everything and everyone. The man got out and left the woman in the passenger side of the car while he ran in for a beer. He said that as he was going in the store the would be robber was coming out. The guy then ran over to the car, got in the driver side and told the woman to get out. The lady got out just like the robber demanded, but as she was getting out the guy shot her in the back/upper buttock.

So there I was, suddenly mixed in with the mayhem. The boyfriend was kind of in shock and he didn't know what to do. All of a sudden it was like all of my ER training, First Aid, and scout training took over. I told the boyfriend to hold the lady's head still, to keep her calm and not to let her move. I got the nearest bystander to call 911, which was kind of a regret because he spoke with a heavy indian accent and I could tell that the operator was having a hard time understanding him. I was able to get a clean rag from one of the store clerks and I applied pressure to the gunshot wound.

Within about 2 minutes, there were close to a dozen cops. A few of them took off down the road to see if they could find the guy, but they didn't really know where to look. The lady was starting to go into shock, so it was hard to understand her even though she was calming down. Finally the EMS people arrived and took over, gave her oxygen, neck collar and we put her on a backboard.

There was no exit wound and she had swelling and bruising in her belly so they called in Life Flight. I ended up being there for nearly 3 hours. I gave my statement, which wasn't much because I didn't really see anything happen. I guess I was just in the wrong place at the right time?

Having worked in an E.R. I've seen lots of stuff and been around a lot of different situations, but that was always after the event. I've never been in a situation where the event has just taken place. With that said, the gunshot wound was remarkably clean and very little blood coming from the wound. It looked like someone put a cigarette butt on her back. The edges of the skin around the wound were burned. It was very surreal. Needless to say I didn't sleep well that night.

So yesterday we took the kids to a play over where my wife teaches pre-k and the sister of the lady happened to be a volunteer over there. From what she said, her sister wasn't doing too good, but had made it out of the operation okay. She had to have her spleen fixed/removed, her uterus removed because the bullet had perforated it and she had some of her small intestine removed because of damage.

Later that afternoon, Samantha and I went to the mall and we stopped at the store. I showed her where everything happened. As we were leaving the boyfriend showed up and I talked to him for a minute. He sounded more positive than the lady's sister did and it sounds like she'll be okay. The cops did find the car about 10 miles away in a bad part of town, but no sign of the suspect.

People have been telling me that I'm a hero, that I saved her life and I think that's a little overboard, but I am glad that I was able to help. I'm sure that the lady would have been okay even if I hadn't been there. I was talking to my little brother and I was telling him that I always mentally put myself in these "what if" situations.....what if my house caught on fire, what would I do? What if someone broke into my house, what would I do? What if I saw someone robbing a store, what would I do? I don't know that you can ever account for the exactness of a situation because there are so many variables, but I realize that if you use common sense and can remain calm, most things will turn out okay.

Definately an evening to remember.