A story of heroism and selflessness is emerging as San Jose police continue to investigate the shooting that left four men and a woman wounded on Super Bowl Sunday.
The shooting happened near San Pedro Square in downtown San Jose. During the incident, two young men rushed in and helped get one of those victims to a hospital.
The rescuers say they just happened to be in the area the night after the Super Bowl, and say when the shooting started they wanted to leave until they saw someone who needed help.
Karim Bourouha, 20, and Shawn Brunson, 21, are close friends who started, and run, the Bay Area Vectra Video Company together.
The two were part of a crowd at San Pedro Square in downtown San Jose when gunfire rang out. The crowd scattered in a panic, but Bourougha and Brunson spotted a young man who was shot in the leg and was bleeding.
“We lifted him up, I grabbed his legs, he grabbed the front of his body and the right leg where he got shot at,” Brunson said.
“I got out of my car, opened the car, I grabbed him by his collar. My friend here, grabbed them by the leg and we just threw them in. We didn’t say anything, we didn’t look for anything, we didn’t ask him anything, we just had the idea ‘hey, this guy got shot’,” Bourouha said.
Bourouha sped off, as he put it, breaking some traffic laws to get to the hospital with the victim in the back.
“He had consciousness, but as I kept looking back into the back seat. He would just be contorting himself, his eyes would be rolling into the back of his head. We honestly thought he wasn’t going to make it. We really didn’t think he was going to make it,” Brunson said. “We got to the hospital just in time, all because of his quick thinking and skillful driving.”
The victim survived and now the two are getting a moment to reflect on the surreal episode.
“The hardest part about taking action is knowing when to take it, right? Because you can wait and wait and wait for someone else to. But usually if everyone has that same mindset, no one will,” Brunson said.
The pair said they had brief contact with that victim who said he would keep them posted on how he’s doing.