Bystanders help state trooper shot in Aliquippa
ALIQUIPPA, Pa. (KDKA) - Bystanders helped a state trooper who was shot at a mini-mart in Aliquippa.
Strangers jumped into action to get Jonnie Schooley out of the store and helped him stop the bleeding from his gunshot wound. Civilians also helped restrain the suspect.
Matthew Weekley was near the Franklin Mini-Mart in Aliquippa when he heard a gunshot just after midnight Friday.
"Not too long after I heard the shot, they brought the trooper out, and he was just bleeding, and we attended to him," Weekley said.
Weekley and other Good Samaritans didn't hesitate to help state trooper Jonnie Schooley, who had a gunshot wound to his leg.
Cell phone video shows a group of men using the shirts off their backs to help the trooper, who was losing a lot of blood.
"They said, 'man, he needed a shirt,' so I took a shirt and made tourniquets for him. People were just wrapping stuff around his leg, and he was directing us, he was like, 'man, wrap it around my leg, I need it tighter', so we just tightened it. The ambulance didn't come for a while," Weekley said.
Investigators said in the criminal complaint that trooper Schooley and his partner, trooper Shawn Palmer, both from the state police Beaver station, were on a routine patrol when they noticed a disturbance at the mini-mart.
In the criminal complaint, it says Damian Bradford was threatening people with a pistol before the troopers intervened. Investigators wrote that Bradford violently struggled with the troopers as they were trying to restrain him, and he shot Schooley. The documents say they were able to disarm Bradford then he tried to take trooper Palmer's gun and taser.
Bystanders helped Palmer restrain Bradford.
Weekley said he never thought he'd help a state trooper.
"He a human, man. Like I ain't really tripping, man, I've dealt with cops all my life. I've been on the wrong side. I'm on the good side now, so it really wasn't nothing," he said. "He's got some babies waiting at home as well as me."
Bradford is facing 13 charges, which include criminal attempted homicide, assault of a law enforcement officer, two counts of aggravated assault, five counts of recklessly endangering another person, disarming a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest, possession of a prohibited firearm and firearms not to be carried without a license.
"I want to thank the citizens, several who came to the aid of our troopers. The sense of community and support of our police departments must overcome the sense of fear that the gun violence produces," said Major Jeremy Richard, deputy commissioner of operations for Pennsylvania State Police.
Sources tell KDKA Schooley underwent at least one surgery and that the bullet exited his leg.
Palmer was taken to a hospital to be evaluated for minor injuries.
Bradford remains in the hospital where he was taken for treatment.
