'I thought I was gonna die': Bystander forced to drive B.C. shooting victim to hospital
Disclaimer: This story contains graphic content
A woman from Surrey, B.C., is sharing her harrowing experience after she was forced to drive a shooting victim to hospital this week.
Given the sensitivity of the subject matter and concerns for her safety, CTV News has agreed to identify her by the pseudonym “Jane.”
Jane said she was driving her son home near 128A Street and 100th Avenue Thursday night when she noticed something alarming – a badly injured man she didn’t recognize walking away from a nearby house in distress.
“He started coming towards my car yelling that he had been shot: ‘I've been shot … help me, please help me!’” she recounted.
Jane told her son to get out of the car and call for help. The man then got into her passenger seat and demanded she drive him to hospital.
“I really didn't have time to think. I thought I was gonna die,” she said. “I was scared that he was going to shoot me. Did he have a gun? I don't know, right?”
She said the man was bleeding profusely and slipping in and out of consciousness.
Jane recalled him saying, “I was shot by a rifle,” and “My hand has gone.”
During the drive, he became impatient and started laying on Jane’s horn to try and make people move in traffic, she said.
“He was begging to get him there in time. And I just kept telling him please breathe, just keep breathing,’” Jane said.
By the time she pulled up to the emergency room at Surrey Memorial Hospital, the man was barely conscious.
Jane helped him through the doors and he collapsed.
She called 911 and the police arrived within minutes.
As the shock wore off and she began processing what happened, Jane started calling her loved ones.
“I just couldn't breathe. I was a mess. I'm a mess still,” she told CTV News.
Jane said the police drove her home, but it was a sleepless night.
In the end, she never even learned the man’s name.
Police later identified the shooting victim as a 38-year-old man who is known to law enforcement, and said his injuries turned out to be non-life-threatening.
Authorities believe the shooting was targeted.
Jane said she didn’t feel she had any choice but to help the man, but she also did what she thought was right.
“I wasn't gonna leave somebody there to die either. I wouldn't have done that,” Jane told CTV News.
When asked if she felt her actions were heroic, Jane said no.
“I'm not the kind of person that would let somebody die whether they're a bad or good person,” she said, her voice wavering with emotion.
“I don't ever want anybody to suffer and die.”
Police have yet to determine the motive behind the shooting.
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