Cops Used Makeshift Tourniquet To Save Man Shot By Officer In Flatbush, Report Says

FLATBUSH, BROOKLYN — Some quick-thinking cops helped save a man's life after he was shot by a police officer, according to a report.

The 19-year-old was holding a BB gun and fleeing an arrest attempt near a Flatbush bodega when an NYPD officer fired once, striking him in the leg, according to police.

A group of officers used his sweatpants to make a makeshift tourniquet and helped keep him alive until emergency responders arrived, the officers told The New York Daily News.

"It’s a good feeling that you’re able to save someone’s life despite what had taken place prior," officer Kevin Hunter told the News. "We would like to feel that we did all that we could."

Officers were responding to a 9-1-1 call of a man with a gun inside of a bodega on Church Avenue and East 34th Street around 10:06 p.m., police said. When they tried to arrest the man, he fled north on 34th Street, the NYPD said.

At one point, he turned around and pointed what appeared to be a gun at them, according to the Daily News, citing sources.

One of the officers hit him with a single bullet and he was arrested, police said.

Officers Hunter, Remy Jean-Francois and Philip Longo arrived on the scene shortly after and said the boy's femoral artery had been severed, according to the Daily News.

Here's how they made the tourniquet, according to the News:

They removed Graham’s sweatpants. Francois then cut the string out of the sweatpants and made the tourniquet with the pants. He looped the string around the leg and then wrapped it around the piece of the door frame. He then twirled the wood around several times, tightening the string so that it stopped the flow of blood.

"It’s second nature now. It’s what you are trained to do," Jean-Francois said. "Once we determine that our officers are ok, we just dive right in and do what we were trained to do."

Click here to read the full story from The New York Daily News.

Lead photo by Kathleen Culliton, Patch Staff.