Video: Police Officers Save Life With CPR

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Columbus, Miss. (WCBI) — After a shooting at the Princess Theatre in downtown Columbus Sunday morning, two Columbus police officers responded to the call and saved the shooting victim with CPR.

Officers said 28 year old Alexander Crowell was laying lifeless on the south side of the Princess with a gun shot wound to his upper body.

The officers honored for resuscitating Crowell back to life were Officer Amanda Burrell and Andres Rodriguez. Both officers responded to the shots fired call within one minute.

“It was chaotic…”, Burrell said, describing the scene when she arrived, “…people were running everywhere…people were saying help him, help him, help him…”

Rodriguez recalled there being around 50 to 60 panicked people surrounding the victim, and that he and Burrell had to fight their way to attend to him.

When we actually saw the victim, just instinct kicked in…”, said Burrell, “…we went ahead and did what we were trained to do and did what we thought we had to do to save him…”

When the officers checked for vital signs, they found no response. That’s when Burrell began to do chest compression and Rodriguez used a breathing mask to do mouth-to-mouth CPR. After approximately three cycles of CPR, Crowell was able to breath on his own, and Rodriguez said, “a wave of relief came over me…”.

Rodriguez also said the job wasn’t over after they resuscitated Crowell because they had to clear the crowds in order for EMS crews to attend and bring the victim to the hospital.

Burell said the her actions didn’t sink in until she returned home from her shift.

“You get home and you kind of wind down and you’re like, wow, that was kind of cool…”, said Burrell, “…but then again…we have a job to do and when all else is said and done, we did what we were trained to do.”

It was the third time Burrell had conducted CPR on a scene, and it was Rodriguez’s first in his three years with the Columbus Police Department.

Interim Police Chief Fred Shelton honored the officers by giving them each the Chief’s Coin, which he said is similar to the military’s Medal of Honor, to honor the officers for going above and beyond the call of duty.

Crowell is still in the ICU in Jackson and the shooting investigation is still ongoing.

Categories: Local News

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