Convicted Drug Dealer Saves Police Officer Wounded During Shootout at Courthouse
From wars to famines to genocide, we know that people can do terrible things. And that’s before we get to the smaller wrongs we visit on each other every day, such as lies and gossip and plain old meanness.
Still, we shouldn’t think that everyone is as bad as he can be. Just look at the case of Xuan Sayles.
According to KDKA, Sayles was in the parking lot of the office of Magisterial District Judge Daniel Shimshock on Sept. 19. Why? He was scheduled for a hearing related to drug charges.
Now you might think that makes Sayles a Not Good Guy, and he probably wouldn’t disagree with you. “I’m no angel,” he later told WTAE.
But on that day, he became a hero. While in the parking lot, he heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire.
Looking up, he saw a woman running from an armed man. The man was later identified as Shaun Dowdell, and the woman was his wife.
According to CBS News, Dowdell was scheduled to appear before Shimshock in regards to a domestic violence case. Instead, he showed up with a firearm and started shooting.
“I turned around and saw a guy with a gun, and [a] lady was five to eight feet away from the shooter, and his gun jammed up,” Sayles said. “He was trying to get it to shoot again, and it wouldn’t shoot.”
After Dowdell cleared his gun’s chamber, he started shooting the exterior of the building. Then he went inside, firing all the while.
“I’ve never seen nothing like that,” Sayles stated. About that time, he also noticed Masontown Police Sgt. Scott Miller huddled behind a car, bleeding heavily from his hand.
He’d been shot in the hand by Dowdell. “I saw the cop, he was taking cover behind the vehicle, and he said, ‘Stay back,’ but he was shot,” Sayles explained.
“I ran over to him, took my shirt off, my tank top first, and wrapped it around his hand. But he was still bleeding so profusely that I took my other shirt off and wrapped it around his hand, and then I took my belt off and wrapped it around his wrist.”
There were 60 some people waiting in line at the office immediately prior to the shooting. Four were injured, and the shooter was fatally shot by another officer.
According to WATE, Sgt. Miller will undergo surgery to amputate his finger, but he is doing well.
As for Sayles brave actions, he stated what he did was only natural, saying, “Scotty Miller is a good cop. I know him, and I knew he had a past history with his heart, so that was the first thing I thought when I saw him bleeding. …”
“I don’t know about the heroic stuff. That’s just who I am.”
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