INDIANAPOLIS — Three firefighters visiting from Georgia saved a shooting victim at a downtown Indianapolis White Castle, police said.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers were called to the restaurant at 55 W. South St. at 3:09 a.m. on April 19 after reports of a shooting, FOX 59 reported. Police said the violence began with a disturbance outside the restaurant and ended in gunfire.
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Inside the restaurant were three firefighters from Cobb County, Georgia, just outside Atlanta, who were in Indianapolis for the annual Fire Department Instructors Conference at the Indiana Convention Center.
“I was looking behind the counter, and I heard the gunshot,” Firefighter TJ Proulx told FOX 59. “And I see a gentleman, and he says he may see the victim lying on the ground. So, we went outside and looked around the corner, and he was lying there in the parking lot.”
After determining the scene was safe, Fire Engineer Greg Baker left the restaurant with his partners.
“We walk up to the patient, we don’t have gloves yet or anything, we’re just trying to assess him, getting pressure on what we can see where he’s bleeding from, try to stop the bleed,” Baker told FOX 59. “I think we did the best with what we had to stop the bleeding and give that gentleman a good opportunity for a good outcome.”
Using gloves and paper towels supplied by restaurant staff, the firefighters worked to stabilize the victim until Indianapolis EMS arrived. Baker first relayed information to officers at the scene so it could be passed to the incoming ambulance crew, telling them the victim was a man with gunshot wounds and that firefighters were applying direct pressure.
When paramedics arrived, Baker briefed them on the victim’s condition and told them he believed the man needed to be loaded up and taken to the hospital immediately. EMS agreed, brought out a stretcher, loaded the victim, and left the scene within minutes.
“I think it was very crucial that, when somebody has a GSW or anything like that, they have some internal bleeding,” Firefighter Aaron Mabry said. “We like to be there and get some direct pressure, assess and make sure that it didn’t hit anything important. So, I think it was very crucial that we were there at that time.”
