Good Samaritan who Helped Wounded N.J. Officer: 'I Just Put Him First'

A New Jersey nurse says that she didn't consider the dangers when she rushed to help a police officer, one of two who were shot while questioning a man at an apartment complex last week.

“I wasn’t even thinking about myself. I just put him first,” the good Samaritan, who wished to be anonymous, told News 12 New Jersey.

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Newark Police Officers Johnny Aquino and Jabril Paul were responding to a report Nov. 1 that a man wanted for questioning in an earlier shooting had been spotted at an apartment building at about 1 p.m. Nov. 1, according to documents acquired by NJ Advance Media. When the officers located the 30-year-old suspect, Kendall Howard, in a building parking lot and ordered him not to move.

Howard ignored the commands, and the officers physically confronted him as he began walking away. That's when Howard drew a handgun, put it to Aquino's face and fired, wounding him in the neck. The gunfire also struck Paul in the leg, and Howard fled the scene on foot.

The anonymous nurse witnessed the shooting after picking up groceries for her family, and she quickly moved her car to shield the wounded officers from gunfire, with at least one bullet striking her vehicle's hood.

"I wasn't even thinking about bullets," the woman, who works with patients with mental health issues, told News 12. "The only thing I saw was (the officer), and that's what I was focused on, saving him."

In video captured from the scene, the woman is tending to Aquino, who was on the ground after the shooting. She pulled towels from her car and began tending to Aquino's neck wound.

“(It was) natural for me to go help someone," she said. "That's what I do. I would want someone to do that for me, my family, my daughter, my husband, my sister.”

The wounded officers were rushed to the hospital by their colleagues. Paul went home from the hospital Wednesday, and Aquino was released Friday.

Howard was finally apprehended Wednesday following an intense manhunt. He faces attempted murder and weapons charges.

Despite the harrowing circumstances and risk to her own personal safety, the Newark nurse said, "Of course, I would do it again. That's who I am."