A Fort Bragg soldier is credited with saving the life of a pawn shop owner who had been shot in the leg by using a power tool cord as a tourniquet, according to an ABC News affiliate in North Carolina.
- Pfc. Patrick Montgomery told WTVD that he was pumping gas when he heard gunshots coming from the direction of Bragg Pawn Shop, so he ran towards the danger and found pawn shop co-owner Ronald Rumple wounded inside.
- “It probably wasn’t smart going up there but I know he would be dead if I didn’t,” Montgomery told WTVD reporter Morgan Norwood.
- Ruple, 63, had been shot in the leg by an unidentified man while locking up his business, according to police in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Ruple fired back at the man, who ran into the woods, and then Ruple went back into the pawn shop.
- “I peeked my head through the broken glass and I saw a trail of blood leading from the door to behind the counter,” Montgomery told WTVD. “I yelled: Did anyone need help? And Ron kind of like picked his head up and collapsed.”
- Seeing that Ruple had lost “a massive amount of blood,” Montgomery grabbed a power tool and used the cord to tie off the wound to his leg, he told the news station.
- Task & Purpose was unable to reach Montgomery on Tuesday.
- The man accused of shooting Ruple is still at large, said Lt. Gary Womble, a spokesman for the Fayetteville Police Department.