PAWTUCKET, R.I. (WHDH) - An EMT for 40-years, Glenn Narodowy has responded to plenty of emergencies. Now retired, he was at the Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, watching his girlfriend’s son play hockey when shots rang out.
“Just loud bang. Gunfire,” Narodowy said. “I’ve heard gunfire before that close, so I kinda know what it was. I just turned and started heading towards where it was.”
Narodowy and his girlfriend were standing near the ice. She said he pushed her toward the exit, as he ran into the stands.
“We heard the loud noises and I did not know it was gunshots,” Kristin Decaltaldo said, Narodowy’s girlfriend. “I thought the bleachers were collapsing: crack, crack, crack … I knew there was danger when people were running away.”
But Narodowy didn’t think twice, weaving through the crowd toward the victims.
“I got to the ex wife’s boyfriend first and I covered his bullet wound and I had someone put pressure on that,” Narodowy said.
Narodowy used t-shirts to stop the bleeding, then tended to Rhonda Dorgan and her parents.
“Glenn is a hero. He’s always looking to help other and thinks so quickly. Not everybody can do that,” Decaltaldo said.
Narodowy said the true stars of the day were the people who ran into danger to stop the shooter and prevent anymore gunfire.
“The guys that tackled him are the real heroes,” Narodowy said. “The lay persons, hockey moms, hockey dads that just stepped up and did what they had to do. It was amazing. I’m so proud of them.”
Narodowy is used to helping people after an incident, not being a witness to the actual crime. He’s now dealing with the psychological wounds that come with what he saw that day.
“Definitely a lack of sleep this week just rerunning it in my mind … Why couldn’t I have been closer? Why did it happen like that?” Narodowy said.
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