PATCHOGUE, N.Y. (WCBS 880) — A former U.S. Marine is being credited with helping to save the life of a Suffolk County police officer who was allegedly stabbed by a drunken driving suspect.
After hearing a loud crash outside his house in Patchogue on Saturday night, Guillermo Sandoval ran outside wearing his construction headlight and saw the officer in his backyard, bleeding after being stabbed in the leg by a suspect who failed to comply during a traffic stop.
"I was in the Marine Corps before and I knew exactly what he needed so I said, 'Hold on brother, I'm going to get you a tourniquet,'" Sandoval said.
Sandoval tells WCBS 880's Sophia Hall that he ran back inside his house, called 911 and ran to get a belt to make a tourniquet to stop the officer from bleeding to death.
The slash of the knife had ruptured an artery in the officer's leg.
"The officer, when I first examined him, was speaking still and saying that he needed help and that he was bleeding. By the time I came back with the tourniquet he was no longer really speaking and he was very pale. He basically was bleeding out," Sandoval said.
As he was putting on the tourniquet, three other officers arrived on the scene and said they needed to get the injured officer to the hospital.
Sandoval grabbed the officer by his boots and with the help of the other officers, got him into an SUV and to the hospital.
A retired NYPD officer helped detain the suspect.
The officer is currently hospitalized in critical condition after undergoing emergency surgery.
"I just did what I think any person would do," Sandoval said. "I was in the Marine Corps, trained for that, I knew exactly what needed to be done."
The suspect, identified as 25-year-old Jonathan Nunez, was arrested on charges of aggravated assault on a police officer, driving while intoxicated and resisting arrest.
Police said Nunez was behind the wheel of a 1999 Mercedes Benz, driving erattically with no headlights on when the officer tried to pull him over.
Nunez allegedly crashed his car into a Nissan and then failed to comply with the officer's commands after getting out of the vehicle.
The two got into a fight in the yard of Sandoval's home, during which police said Nunez stabbed the officer.
The driver of the Nissan was treated for non-life threatening injuries.
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