EXCLUSIVE: Deputy recalls how he saved woman's life during mass shooting
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Sunday patrol for Deputy Wayne Ford was anything but routine on May 29.
As he approached Wilcrest on Memorial Drive, he wasn't sure what he would find. Units in front of him took gunfire. He knew he had to warn others.
"I told them to get to the house. The guy was shooting to kill people and they needed to move," Ford said.
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That's when he saw a red Tesla coming right at him. What Ford didn't know was Denise Slaughter was inside and had been shot
"My driver's side window exploded," said Slaughter.
You can still see the bullet fragment scars along her face and neck.
"The passenger was screaming bloody murder. Both ladies are covered in blood," Ford said.
Slaughter's passenger, Diane, was trying to help. The deputy used his years of first aid training as a Cy-Fair Volunteer firefighter. He grabbed towels from his car to stop the bleeding while danger remained nearby.
"The whole time this is going on, the guy is steadily firing a gun. It's constant," Ford said.
The same bullet struck her four times.
"It exited here. It went in there and exited again here," Slaughter said.
Ford didn't know her name but he wasn't sure he would see her again.
"I didn't think she's get out of the car before the ambulance got there. I honestly didn't," He added. "I thought she was going to die right there on the spot."
Now Diane tells her survivors story.
"I'm lucky to be here. It's a challenge but I have some kind of new purpose maybe," she said.
Ford has been checking in on her recovery.
"She says I saved her life. No, I helped," said Ford.
A deputy on patrol and a woman on her way to brunch now share a forever bond from such uncertain moments.
