Dino saves a cop

One of our beloved regulars is a city paramedic. Dino once went a whole 24 hours sitting and drinking at Igor’s in order win a free t-shirt. Along about the 20th hour people were begging him to go home. “I’ll buy you a damn t-shirt, go home!” they insisted. No dice, Dino was in it all the way. He won his t-shirt.

That stubborn determination saved the life of a New Orleans police officer late one afternoon.

The policeman was responding to a call that a known drug suspect was spotted in a housing project area. Sure enough the knucklehead was at his business selling dope.

The officer confronted the suspect and a foot pursuit was on. The suspect was armed with a small 9mm pistol. The drug world can be a violent and deadly place where the competition is literally cut throat.

The officer had just chased the suspect into an open area when he turned and started firing. The officer was struck twice and went down hard. He lay there bleeding and sent out an “Officer Down” call. When that call goes out, the NOPD has nothing else going on but saving their own.

Dino and his partner were the closest paramedic team in the area. In a flash they arrived on the scene, unsure if the shooting suspect was still in the area.

Dino described the scene as, “everything went all weird and slow motion. The cop kept asking me if he was going to die.” While stabilizing him Dino remained calm and reassured the cop he was going to be okay. Dino kept working on him while transporting the policeman to the nearest emergency room.

Afterward Dino said, “Man, after we turned him over to the ER, I went back outside and just started shaking and crying.” The cop slowly recovered and was back on duty a few months later.

NOPD was eternally grateful that Dino saved their brother’s life. Whenever the Special Operations Division had a high-risk raid planned, they requested Dino and his partner to be the paramedic standbys.

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