8-Year-Old Compresses Dad's Gunshot Wound, Saving Life In Placer County Shooting Spree
PLACER COUNTY (CBS13) — A Placer County man is out of the hospital after a gunman took aim at him during a shooting spree Tuesday night.
Faced with death, Brian Pierce stayed calm and drove himself to a fire station, enlisting the help of his daughter to get there. It's a night he says was filled with many miracles.
"When God calls you home it's time —but in this case, it wasn't," Pierce said.
Pierce is a spiritual man who says a higher power was watching over him the night he was shot on a country road in Penryn.
"I would say there is a lot of miracles lining up perfectly," he said.
Tuesday night Pierce, the owner of a Loomis solar company had just picked up his 8-year-old Isabel from basketball practice. Little did he know, she would soon be his guardian angel on their way home.
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"She did a really good job," said Pierce.
He had stopped to let an oncoming truck hauling a trailer pass when his window suddenly was blown out.
"I stopped and looked in the mirror and I could see the blood was pumping out from a half inch hole," said Pierce.
Pierce asked his daughter to compress the wound with a gym band
"I said 'I'm hurt' and she said 'Daddy are you ok?' and I said 'I will be ok if you hold this tight.'"
Pierce focused on his six kids and wife as he raced to the Loomis fire station, honking frantically as he pulled up.
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"I really felt bad because I wasn't trying to be a jerk, I just didn't want to die," said Pierce.
Paramedics rushed him to Sutter Roseville where he would later learn a 93-year-old Penryn woman named Mary Toste was shot and killed during the spree which left 7 crime scenes and spanned over an hour. It ended when the gunman, Stanley Stepanski, was killed by police during a gun battle.
"The docs said I was lucky and shouldn't be walking out of here alive," said Pierce.
He said it was a miracle that the bullet hit his collarbone straight on.
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"And that stopped the bullet or it would have killed me."
Investigators still don't know why the shooter Stanley Stepanski went on that shooting spree. Pierce reflected on the tragedy and is thankful.
"Everyone has been great. Hospital Staff, paramedics, friends, neighbors, so you can see. Some of the bad can happen..getting shot.. but you can also see good like the outpouring of love and kindness has just been overwhelming," he said.
Pierce's right arm is in a sling. Doctors say his bone will heal and he is already thinking about getting back in the gym.