Good Samaritan shot while trying to aid dying woman in Baton Rouge

The heroic teen is recovering after two operations in three days

Daniel Wesley, 17, was run over and shot while helping a dying woman (WBRZ 2)

Daniel Wesley pulled on a pair of gloves and searched for the woman’s bullet wounds, looking for the best place to apply pressure.

The 17-year-old didn’t have his EMT certification yet, but in the critical moments after authorities say April Peck was shot by her boyfriend on Sunday, Mr Wesley was all she had.

Before the teen could do more, Ms Peck’s boyfriend came roaring back in a Chevy Malibu.

“If you help her, I’m going to kill you,” he said, according to Mr Wesley’s mother, who spoke to the Advocate, a newspaper based in Baton Rouge.

The boyfriend, Terrell Walker, rammed the car into Mr Wesley, according to the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office.

The car pushed him into the side of an arriving ambulance, shattering his arm and snapping his femur, according to a GoFundMe page set up by his family.

Injured, Mr Wesley crawled to the median. Investigators say Mr Walker pointed his gun and shot the teen twice.

Mr Walker also fired at the ambulance’s crew, but didn’t hit them, before getting in the car and peeling off.

First responders ultimately sorted out the injured. Ms Peck, a 30-year-old mother of two, was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she died.

Mr Wesley, a senior at Central High School, was taken there, too, and went through two surgeries in three days.

The paramedics weren’t injured. Mike Chustz, a spokesman for East Baton Rouge Emergency Medical Services, said they were barely out of their ambulance when the Malibu crushed Mr Wesley into it.

They had been flagged down by a motorist about an injured woman in the street and initially thought they were on their way to help an injured pedestrian.

“It was totally unexpected,” Mr Chustz told The Washington Post. “They all did whatever they could to seek shelter to try to put some distance between them.”

Mr Walker was gone when deputies arrived, but investigators initiated a manhunt. They saw him walking on Blue Bonnet Boulevard near Interstate 10 and approached.

According to CBS affiliate WAFB, the deputies ordered Walker to put his hands up. He pulled out a handgun instead.

They “exchanged gunfire striking the suspect who was later pronounced dead,” according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.

Louisiana State Police are investigating the officer-involved shooting.

Mr Walker, a felon who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 1992 and to possession of a firearm by a felon 14 years later, had a tumultuous relationship with Ms Peck, according to the Advocate.

He was frequently jealous and often violent, family members told the newspaper. But the couple’s separations never lasted.

Ms Peck had gotten a restraining order against him two weeks ago, the newspaper reported, but they continued to see each other.

He used her Chevy Malibu to commute to his job and had picked her up from work a half-hour before shooting her and hurling her into the street.

Mr Wesley found her there a little later. He was headed home after leaving the Mall of Louisiana.

“He saw something in the road and got closer and realized it was a person,” Kathy Wesley, his mother, told Baton Rouge ABC affiliate WALB.

Mr Wesley’s father is a retired EMS supervisor, and Mr Wesley had his dad’s medic bag in the car. The teen grabbed it and got out to help.

“It’s just second nature to both of our boys to do what needs to be done,” Kathy Wesley told ABC affiliate WBRZ.

© Washington Post