Joshua Barnwell was at
the mall shopping with a friend
when the shooting began.
He's a Navy combat
veteran with training
in emergency care
for wounded people,
which he put to use on Saturday.
I talked to him just a few minutes ago
right before air time,
and we want you to hear from him
what he saw and what he did.
And I just want to tell you
some of the details there.
Gut wrenching
but he and we want you to hear them
because it's
what was done to our fellow human beings.
It's what was done to women
and children and men.
And it happened and it's real
and ignoring it.
It just
doesn't feel like the right thing to do.
Joshua, thank you so much for joining us.
First of all, how are you doing?
I mean, you have been through something
which is just horrific
given the circumstances.
I mean, I could
comfortably say I'm doing good
you know, considering all this occurred.
I know you were there
when the shooting began.
You heard it.
You hit out in a in a lucky jeans store.
You made sure the people around
you were down keeping
keeping as safe as possible.
At a certain point,
you made the decision.
It was
it was safe to come out
and you went directly
to where you believe
the gunfire had come from,
from when you got there.
What did you see
So when I initially got in
front of the H&M store,
it was the first thing that I noticed
was the
the gunshot
blasted windows to that store.
And then as I started to,
you know, rotate around and observe,
the next thing I noticed
was in an alcove area where there was a
a landscaped
flowerbed, if you will.
I noticed in front of
it was a woman who had,
you know, collapsed on top of herself.
And had a parachute there.
And then I turned around
and turned
you know, turned
my gaze towards the left.
And I noticed a
gentleman there
who was,
I guess, for lack of a better word,
writhing in pain.
He had
what appeared to be a shoulder wound
He was actually in the flower bed.
There was a young child.
You know,
my guess at the time was between six
and eight years old that was lying there.
Her state was unknown
but did not look promising.
And then next to her was an adult woman
who had multiple, multiple
vicious gunshot wounds.
She had a the head of a young lady
draped on her left shoulder,
facing downward,
who also appeared
to have multiple very traumatic injuries
and gunshot wounds.
Then at the foot of that young lady
was a basically a pile with a man on top
who was again
writhing in pain with what appeared to be
a shoulder or a chest wound.
And below him was
a deceased woman
that come to later find out his wife.
And then he had a young child with them,
maybe five or six years old, that was
just drenched in blood.
I mean, the color
of whatever fabric he was wearing
was nearly indistinguishable
and he was hiding
but appeared at that time
to not be wounded
or at least not severely wounded.
So, yeah,
that was
the initial observation of the scene
before I actually started
to involve myself.
And and you decided, I mean,
your training at that point,
I assume, kicks in.
You decide to essentially
what do triage and go to
where you think you're needed most
you went to the woman
and her daughter, correct?
That's correct.
Sir, I,
I went over there because she had,
you know, made sounds words.
And so I went to her
and I approached her
and I started to kind of overlook,
you know, her condition
and speak with her and she asked me to,
to look
at her daughter
who was next to her and the young child.
So I turned over to the daughter
and I began to do chest compressions
and some mouth to mouth.
And then I went back to continued
chest compressions at that which time the
just a vile amount of blood
came out from underneath
her, from her back.
And I realized at that point,
with her coloring
and that state,
that she had already been deceased
and you know, that the blood loss
was just unbelievable.
So I then returned back to
to her mother
and just tried to analyze the wounds,
check out the bleeding.
She had a pretty large portion
of her neck that had been compromised.
Both of her legs, her arm
that was visible,
both with just massive,
atrocious bullet wounds.
To the point
where the bone was splintered.
And, you know,
the the tissue was
was everywhere on the walls, etc.
And but she was talking with me
and my main thing was to keep her stable,
keep her daughter,
who also was
making movement
and trying to contain to keep them stable
and just try to apply pressure
and minimize
any more loss that we could get.
I mean, I had no tools.
I'm not a trained medic.
So I was just going with what training
I do have and doing the best that I could
while we were waiting for
trained medical technicians to arrive
so that we could get them off to
to a hospital.
And that mother was
I mean, I did continue to try to
that mother
was asking about eventually had to.
Yeah.
And eventually
I tried to buy time
because I didn't
want to have to tell her.
But eventually I realized that I couldn't
there was no way around it.
So I had to to tell her that
I couldn't work on her daughter anymore
because her daughter was deceased,
but that I needed her to to hang in there
because her husband was there and,
you know, very frantic
and distraught, understandably.
Her daughter was there.
Her daughter was still with us.
So I needed her to fight.
I needed her to fight for her husband.
And for her daughter and for the family
that was still there.
And that's what I kept
relaying to her
and to our daughter that just,
you know, please fight and
and be there
for the family that you have.
How old was the child who died?
You think
I believe her on six,
six, seven years old.
How long did it take
for the ambulances to come
Initially, we had paramedics
arrive on foot
with their trauma bags of trauma kits.
When they arrived again, there were still
too many wounded
for them to handle.
So I.
I worked with them
on applying the stop the bleed turn.
The kids and,
you know, at one point I
had to use a trauma shears to remove her,
her bra and her shirt
because she had a wound on her breast.
And so
I had to apply a compression bandage
on to that.
And so I was working with them you know,
they were giving me the supplies,
and I was applying them
while they were also working
with the other wounded.
But I would probably say
from the time that I arrived,
do we actually started
getting victims on to ambulances
was probably the better part of
ten or so minutes,
largely due to the fact that trying
to get ambulances
into an area
with the possibility of there
still being an active
shooter requires
a great deal of difficulty
to not potentially cause damage or make
an ambulance driver a victim.
And you stayed on
scene helping for
4 hours didn't you?
Many hours, yeah.
I stayed there
till all the patients were gone there.
The patient next to the H&M who came out
and I thought I was going to have to use
my pickup truck to get her out of there.
But we were able to get an ambulance
and get her out.
And then once we were escorted out,
I was then asked by a gentleman
who was there
also on a voluntary basis to assist with
getting the people,
the people off the streets
so that emergency vehicles
could come in and out
and helping with the the crowds of people
that were coming out of the
the ball
that were being stationed
in the grassy area there.
And in doing that, I also,
you know, I had
people that were approaching me
that had medical conditions
or were in need of water or hydration
that I was working with,
getting them to a paramedic to assist
with their medical situations
or getting them water and handing out
and distributing water
and helping the police officers
with that.
Just trying to do what I could do
so that the
the police
officers, the fire department
and the EMS could could do the,
you know, the skilled jobs
that they need to be there to do.
And I could kind of be this this infill
Joshua, I think just extraordinary
what you did.
And I just wonder
if there's anything
you want people to know
about what you saw
when you went through with the others.
I mean, the most important thing,
the reason I even agreed to to to
to do these interviews,
because I'll be honest, I'm pretty tired
but was
because I want people to really
I want it to really sink in.
I want people to really
and truly understand
the depths of the depravity
that occurred.
And, you know,
and if
if if in the detail it upsets them,
then I'm glad because it should
because it was a disastrous situation.
And but there were
a lot of good people there,
both civilians.
And, of course, naturally,
the law enforcement,
the paramedics, the EMTs
and the firefighters
that just really gave it their all to
in a situation
where it's very difficult to navigate,
you know, in those kind of conditions.
But, yeah,
my biggest thing is
just for people to realize and know
how tragic this truly, really,
really, really was
that people lost their lives
and people's lives,
even though they may still be alive.
They are forever changed.
And generally speaking,
not for the positive.