An Ohio bouncer has been hailed as a hero for saving the lives of countless individuals who were caught up in the mass shooting at the weekend.
Jeremy Ganger, a bouncer at Ned Peppers, managed to usher numerous terrified partygoers in through the doors to safety after the shooter started firing indiscriminately.
“I could see him coming our way and I started getting people as fast as I could,” Ganger explained to ABC News, noting that he had to literally fling people into the building in order to save them. “[I was] grabbing people, telling them to get in, get down, stay safe. Telling them to get all the way in as far as they could. Don’t watch the door, don’t watch what’s coming,” he added.
After seeing some people getting struck by bullets, Ganger caught sight of the gunman. “I looked at him right in the face. He had a dead stare. When he got to the door, I saw an officer over to the side of the street and I looked up, I looked at the guy and I said ‘I hope the cop gets him before he gets me,’ because he wasn’t coming in our club.”
Thankfully, the shooter never made it inside — surveillance footage taken from the bar shows the police downing the shooter in a hail of gunfire just as he was about to enter through the doors. The shooting had lasted only 30 seconds due to the professionalism and courage of responding law enforcement.
It could have been so much worse.
“Had that individual made it through the doorway of Ned Peppers with that level of weaponry there would have been a catastrophic loss of life,” said Dayton’s police chief, Richard Biehl, according to The Telegraph.
Nurse runs towards gunfire to administer CPR
There were other heroes out in the Oregon district of Dayton that night.
Critical care nurse Kayla Miller was out celebrating her friend’s 25th birthday when the gunfire rang out and bodies started dropping to the ground. Along with tens of other patrons, Miller frantically sought out a place of shelter away from the speeding bullets. But as she ran, this compassionate medic took a moment to take in the situation, and the reality sunk in — there were people dying all around her.
“I look down the sidewalk and see just a row of bodies. People shot — some alive, some not,” the nurse told NBC’s “Today” show.
Immediately, Miller’s medical training kicked in. Disregarding concerns for her own safety, she stopped running from the frenzied gunman, threw herself to the ground and began to administer emergency CPR. “It was pretty evident (it was gunshots) because everyone was just crawling to the back exit just fighting each other to get out of the bar,” the nurse explained.
Tragically, none of the victims she treated survived.
“I’m grateful to be able to be alive and talk to my family and friends and tell them I’m OK, but my heart breaks for these families,” Miller added. “It’s just not fair.”