Iraq veteran saved from suicide because police officer cared enough to be there

Officer saves veteran from bleeding to death
The Morning Telegraph
Kenneth Dean
September 4, 2014

WHITEHOUSE — Police officers often deal with distraught people, but Whitehouse Police Officer Shawn Johnson found himself administering a life-saving tourniquet Thursday morning when a distraught man identifying himself as an Iraq war veteran slashed his own arm with a broken bottle to end his life.

"No one cares about me," the man can be heard saying on dash cam video, which captured the incident as it unfolded Thursday shortly before 7 a.m. at Hillcreek Park on Lake Tyler.

Whitehouse Police Chief Craig Shelton said Johnson and Officer Craig Halbrooks responded to the call originally dispatched as a Tyler Police call because they were closer.

"Someone called in that a man was bleeding very badly in the area, so our officers were sent due to us being closer than the officers from Tyler. They didn't know what they had until they got on scene," he said.

Johnson said as he entered Hillcreek Park, a motorist told him a man was bleeding and walking down the road.

When Johnson pulled up he could see the man covered in blood and ordered the man to put his hands up and then checked him for weapons.

Johnson asked the man what was wrong. The man replied he didn't want to live.

"No one cares," he said.

Johnson replied, "That's not true or we wouldn't be here."

read more here