Watertown Resident Aided Effort to Save MBTA Officer as he Lay Injured in His in Driveway

Jeffrey Ryan lives at the corner of Laurel Street and Dexter Avenue in Watertown, a neighborhood that he considered safe until the early hours of April 19.

That Thursday night, Ryan was enjoying school vacation and watching Django Unchained. He went to bed early after what he said was a normal day, only to be awakened a couple of hours later by the sound of gunshots. 

The Reading Memorial High School teacher had always believed that his neighborhood in East Watertown was "very safe" until the night of April 18. Before that night, the biggest problem he faced was intoxicated teenagers setting off fireworks. 

When he heard what he thought was gunshots, he hoped they were fireworks. He went downstairs to see what was going on and as he got closer, the noises got louder. He heard police and right away realized that he would not be dealing with unruly teens that night.

He heard a loud explosion, which he later found out was another pressure cooker bomb similar to the ones Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev planted at the finish line of the Boston Marathon just days earlier. 

"Pandemonium" had broken out in his neighborhood, Ryan said.

His house is directly behind the area were Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot and died on April 18. 

He waited for the gun shots to stop, and when they did he walked onto his porch to see what had happened. He heard police saying, "Stay with us. Where is the ambulance?"

Ryan looked down, and saw MBTA Officer Richard Donahue in his driveway, with a bullet wound, bleeding. He later found out that Donahue had suffered a gunshot wound to his leg that severed a major artery.

Ryan asked the police if there was anything he could do to help. The police asked him for towels to use as tourniquets. His wife was inside listening, and immediately threw a pile of towels down the stairs for the officer.

It was a miracle that he survived, Ryan said. A state police officer later told Ryan that the tourniquets may have been part of the reason he made it to the hospital.

"I'm not a hero," Donahue said. "I did what any citizen should do in a time of crisis."

He spent the next day in lock down, as did other area residents, away from his windows and doors until Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured about a half mile away from his home on Franklin Street. 

The situation was "very intense and very serious," he said.

After he was able to leave his home, he went to the grocery store for some essentials and spoke with other shoppers. Ryan met someone who knew Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in high school and said he was a "nice kid," but that his brother had messed him up.

Throughout the following days, Ryan's neighborhood turned into a "tourist attraction." People were taking photos in front of street signs and near the blood stains in his driveway. That lasted for about two weeks, he said.

"I think that the situation gave people an opportunity to show grand heroism and I'm grateful to Watertown Police and other law enforcement for saving our lives," he said.