Officer Taylor Brandt of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPDC) is being praised as a hero for saving nine lives during her rookie year patrolling the streets.
From the get-go, Brandt was saving lives. Just two weeks into her field training after joining the department in December 2019, she encountered a man lying in the street who had been shot multiple times.
“We saw a guy laying in the roadway concerned for his well-being,” Brandt told ABC 7. “He states he had been shot multiple times but we had no calls for a shooting, no sounds of gunshots and nothing pending.”
That was the first time Brandt utilized the life-saving skills taught to her in training. She immediately applied a tourniquet to prevent blood loss.
“Police generally arrive on the scene first. We are the first on scene to provide medical care and our first goal is to preserve life which results in preventing blood loss,” she said.
Over the course of her first year, Brandt has seen many wounded by gunshots.
“Lots and lots of gunshot wounds unfortunately,” Brandt stated. “We have a lot of problems with gun violence in the city currently.”
So far, Brandt has given life-saving medical assistance nine times — an achievement she is personally proud of.
“Even within the district some people never get to do that,” she said.
Commander of MPDC Academy training, Ralph Ennis, said that Brandt is a rare case.
“I would challenge you to find one other police officer in this country that has saved nine people,” he stated. “It just doesn’t happen. She truly understands that policing is about helping people.”
MPDC rolled out its first-aid medical training, Tactical Emergency Casual Care, in 2014. The training equips officers with the tools and knowledge to provide medical attention for serious injuries.
Ennis credits the training program with saving more lives. “When I first came on police, I have seen so many people die in front of me because we didn’t have this level of training, and now [that] we have equipment and training, [it] is very refreshing to know that we are giving people another chance at life.”
