On the night of March 8 Portland police officers Justin Raphael and Tyler Wyatt were responding to a call of shots fired. When they arrived, about a dozen people yelled for help and motioned them over to the victim. According to police, he was lying outside an apartment doorway with a gun on the ground nearby.
Raphael, a 10-year veteran of the Portland Police Bureau told KGW, "It was clear that he was in grave condition. He was going in and out of consciousness."
The man was bleeding out from a leg wound.
"So we don't know at this point if the shooter is still there," said Wyatt, who’s been with the police bureau for about four years.
"We had to make a decision to sacrifice our own safety in those moments and go into this scene to begin to save a life," said Raphael.
Both officers drew on their police bureau medical training. They carry Individual First Aid Kits. Officer Wyatt reached for the hemostatic gauze designed to stop the bleeding and packed it into the victim’s wound. Officer Raphael applied a tourniquet.
"I think that gets lost on a lot of people. That sometimes as officers, we're the first component of that emergency aid," said Wyatt.
