BOSTON – When AFSCME member Jonathan Cahill heard gunshots and watched a young man fall to the ground next to his car, he could have headed for safe cover. Instead, he jumped into action.
A police officer for the Boston Public Health Commission and member of Local 787, Cahill was off-duty on May 18 and had just left Stop and Shop on Blue Hill Avenue in Dorchester. He was sitting in traffic when gunfire broke out next to him.
"We were sitting in the car, and then you could hear the gunshots echoing," Cahill said. "People started running and yelling. I heard 8 or 9 gunshots over 10 seconds, and this kid was running and then he fell. He got shot as he was running away."
Officer Jonathan Cahill. (Zac Bears/AFSCME Council 93)
Cahill has more experience than most people in a situation like this. The decorated Marine served our country with distinction in Afghanistan as a member of the First Battalion, 25th Marine Infantry.
But on this particular night, Cahill didn't have a battalion behind him, and the only thing he was armed with was a tourniquet he received from Boston Police Officer Frank Nogueira at a training just two weeks earlier. He grabbed the tourniquet and ran to the 19-year-old man, who was lying on the sidewalk. A crowd had gathered around him, but they didn't know what to do.
"They were just staring at him," Cahill said. "I was next to him in 15 or 20 seconds."
As he knelt over the gunshot victim, Cahill asked the injured man what happened. He responded that he had been shot and that his leg was hurt. Cahill pulled off the man's shoe and pant leg, and as he felt the man's leg, Cahill located an entry wound but no exit wound, indicating the bullet was still lodged deep in the man's leg. The bone in his thigh was shattered and the bullet had penetrated his femoral artery. Since it's the largest artery in the body, the victim was in danger of bleeding to death within minutes.
The injured man's leg started to swell up, which EMTs told Cahill was due to internal bleeding. The young man didn't want Cahill to put the tourniquet on his leg due to the pain.
"I told his friends that this will save his leg or save his life," Cahill explained. "The crowd asked if I was a doctor, and I told them I was a Marine."
Because of the pain, Cahill asked the injured man's friends to hold him down as he applied the tourniquet. It worked. The bleeding stopped. Then, Cahill kept the young man calm by talking to him and letting him know that Boston Police and an ambulance would be there soon. He spoke with the officers and EMTs, letting them know that he applied the tourniquet.
Cahill was on active duty in Afghanistan for over six months when he was injured in combat, receiving a Purple Heart for his sacrifice. Eight months later, Cahill joined the BPHC police force in order to continue his service.
"Being overseas fighting for the country makes you realize that you're doing it for a reason," Cahill said. "So that the things happening overseas don't happen here."
"I probably wouldn't have stopped if I hadn't been in the military," he continued. "I wouldn't have had the tourniquet if it hadn't been issued to me at the Boston Police Academy training."
At the training, Officer Nogueira explained that tourniquets could be especially beneficial when dealing with trauma. Much of this knowledge, he said, came from the serious leg injuries and amputations that occurred as a result of the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.
BPHC Sergeant and Local 787 Executive Board Member Tony DeMarco lauded his union brother for his bravery and quick action.
"In today's world, you could stop 100 cars to get a jump, and no one would stop," DeMarco said. "And Officer Cahill got out of the car and went to help. The crowd could have turned against him if he didn't stop the bleeding, and he didn't care."
"I didn't really think about that," Cahill said about the potential risks.
Even when he was off-duty, Cahill put himself at risk to help someone who needed help. John Cahill represents the values of AFSCME members and public service workers across the country, and he never quits in his mission to keep people safe.
"That's what AFSCME does, we help people in a time of need," DeMarco said. "You're there to protect people. He helped someone in their time of need. That kid could have bled out."