Police officers from the D-4 Station are being credited with potentially saving the life of a shooting victim on Mass Ave and Washington Street Aug. 2 when they quickly applied a tourniquet to severe wounds he had from the gunshots.
Sgt. John Boyle said officers treated the man on the scene when they found him shot multiple times and lying on the street bleeding badly.
“The officers applied a tourniquet and it might have been the case that they were able to save him,” said Boyle.
Full notifications for a homicide had gone out upon arrival and seeing the injuries suffered by the man, but upon reevaluation and with the tourniquet applied, he was able to be rushed to a hospital and saved.
Boyle said around 1:12 a.m. on Aug. 2, the ShotSpotter system recorded gunshots near 1904 Washington St. – which is the corner of Washington and Mass Ave in the South End.
Officers from D-4 responded and, upon arrival, observed the victim bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds on the ground next to a vehicle.
There have been no arrests made in the case, and social media sites indicated the man had been shot in the leg and the head. Those posts also reported that others were in the car, including children, at the time of the shooting, but Boyle said there didn’t seem to be anything about that in the report.
Boyle also said that applying a tourniquet on scene has become more common than one might expect as police all carry that equipment since the Marathon Bombing incident. The shooting is still under investigation and the man has survived.