3 METRO police officers rescue man injured during downtown storm: 'We would do it again'

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A badly injured man left to wander the streets of downtown Houston during the height of the May 16 storm was rescued by three METRO police officers.

All three officers spoke exclusively with Eyewitness News about the experience.

Officer Byron Wiley said he was flagged down by a passerby while driving downtown and directed to the Wells Fargo Plaza.

In dashcam footage from attorney Michael Lombardino, you can see the man walking down Louisiana while clutching his arm as debris blows around him.

By the time Wiley catches up with the man, he's in the lobby of the Wells Fargo Plaza and has a huge gash on his arm.

"The laceration was pretty deep. He was losing a lot of blood pretty quickly," Wiley said, adding he wasted no time in applying a makeshift tourniquet to try and stop the bleeding. "Everything happened so quickly. I couldn't grab my medical kit, so I utilized a trash bag from one of the cleaning ladies that was there."

Wiley called for backup, and officers Eddie Rodriguez and Walid Koual arrived.

"We train, we train and we train, but when it's time to do it, it's different," Koual said.

The officers called for an ambulance, but they said none were available, so they were left with just one option.

"From that point, we just decided to try to transport the individual within our patrol vehicle," Rodriguez said.

As the rain and wind continued its assault on downtown, the officers made their way to St. Joseph Medical Center. While they only had to travel a few blocks, they were driving in the same conditions that the victim was when he was injured.

"He actually informed me that he was driving downtown, and he doesn't know what hit his windshield, but something hit his windshield, shattered his windshield," Wiley said.

The officers said they kept talking to the man to distract him from his injuries. They said they were worried he could go into shock.

"My guess is he was disoriented because he was actually bleeding, and anybody bleeding that much with that big of a laceration would be disoriented," Koual said.

They finally made it to the hospital and handed the victim over to doctors who said he should make a full recovery. But as the officers are leaving the hospital, they get a flat tire from a piece of glass.

"We just did our job, and if we had to do it again, we would do it again. Just glad I'm in this line of work," Koual said.

"No hero here. Just doing my job, what I'm supposed to do," Wiley said.

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