An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Home : News : News
JBSA News
NEWS | March 11, 2022

MEDCoE student helps save life of victim injured in road rage shooting

By David DeKunder 502nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs

On Feb. 19, Staff Sgt. Nicholas Newton was driving along the Highway 281/Interstate 10 interchange when he came upon a disturbing scene.

“I saw a truck on the side of the road, or on the road, and someone lying next to the truck,” Newton said. “I see blood coming from him and I saw someone over him on the phone, not knowing what to do.”

When he pulled over on the side of the road, Newton, a 68W Combat Medic assigned to the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence, or MEDCoE, 187th Medical Battalion at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, found a man lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to his chest and a distraught, shocked and crying woman standing next to him.

Putting on a pair of gloves he had in his vehicle, Newton said he started rendering aid to the victim, undressing the man to see where the bleeding was coming from, which was his upper left chest, and put his glove hand on the wound, applying pressure to stabilize the wound and control the bleeding.

Apparently, the man had been involved in an alleged road rage incident in which someone had shot him, Newton said.

“Bystanders who were there said, ‘He just got shot not even 30 seconds ago,’” Newton said.

Newton said he was able to talk to the victim, who told Newton it was getting harder and harder for him to breathe and who Newton observed was experiencing symptoms of shock. Newton said he kept an eye on the man to make sure he was maintaining a good airway to keep breathing.

When police arrived on the scene, an officer provided Newton with a chest seal he was able to put on the chest wound. One of the bystanders, a man who was retired from the Navy, ripped the victim’s pants to see if there were any other injuries on his legs, which there weren’t.

The next to arrive on the scene was EMS. Working with paramedics, Newton rolled the man over and found a penetrating, exit wound on his lower back and put a chest seal on it. He then helped paramedics put the victim on a stretcher and the patient was taken to the hospital.

Newton, 29, has been an EMT for 11 years and a paramedic for four years, including both civilian and the military. He has served as a Combat Medic in the Army for more than five years and is currently a student in the MEDCoE Critical Care Flight Paramedic Program.

He said his training as a paramedic, both as a civilian and in the military, guided him in the saving the life of the man with the gunshot wound. Newton said he followed the processes he has learned for determining what life-saving interventions he needed to conduct and strategizing what he needed to do next to keep the victim alive, while communicating what he was doing to bystanders and first responders on the scene as he was taking care of the patient.

“I started working without thinking,” Newton said. “Automatically, I went into action and started treating the patient. I was able to react appropriately. I was able to keep calm and stay in control of what’s going on and still be able to communicate what’s supposed to happen and work at the same time. I became a medic to help people and I was able to help somebody.”

In regards to being put into a potentially dangerous situation, since the shooter left the scene and could have come back, Newton said that thought never crossed his mind as he was trying to save the life of the wounded man.

“I didn’t think about the shooter coming back until after calming down for a second,” Newton said. “I was like, ‘Oh man, the shooter really could’ve come back.’ But at the time, I was thinking, ‘This guy needs help and I can help him right now. So, let me help him right now.’”

From what he has learned recently, Newton said the man he helped save the life of was still in critical condition at a local hospital intensive care unit, after undergoing a couple of procedures. As of press time, the alleged shooter has not been found.

Newton’s command team will be recognizing him for his heroic efforts in saving a life.

Newton is set to complete the Critical Care Flight Paramedic Program March 15 and will advance to the next level of training in the Aviation Air Member Crew Course at Fort Rucker, Alabama, starting March 21.

Once he completes the Aviation Crewmember Course, Newton will become a Combat Medic with an additional skill identifier as a Critical Care Flight Paramedic.