Life Saving Incident

The call came in at 3:26 p.m. on Tuesday, June 19, 2018. A man had been shot while sitting in his vehicle behind a residence on the 400 block of Charles Avenue. Officer Peng Lee, who has been with the department for eight years, was the first to arrive. He found a man inside the vehicle, bleeding profusely from his left leg. The victim had a self-made tourniquet tied around his leg, and a passenger was applying pressure. Soon the passenger fainted and began to fall over. Officer Lee assisted the passenger to the ground and began to apply direct pressure to the gunshot wound. He could see blood seeping through the tourniquet, so he pressed harder. A short time later, Officer Alexander Graham, a two-year veteran with the department, arrived. He quickly applied a fresh tourniquet to the victim’s leg and cinched it down tight. Soon St. Paul Fire medics arrived, cared for the victim and transported him to Regions Hospital. He survived. According to Dr. Aaron Burnett, the assistant medical director at Regions Hospital, the officers saved the victim’s life. “There is absolutely no doubt that Officer Graham and Officer Lee saved this individual’s life,” he said. “This wound, if not attended by officers, would have been 100 percent fatal.”