AndrewBlakeRancho Tehama, CA – Four different people refused to help a mother who was shot during a recent California shooting rampage.
She would likely be dead if the assistant sheriff hadn’t seen her on the side of the road, and stopped to render aid.
Tiffany Phommathep was one of Kevin Neal’s victims on Nov. 14, when he went on a shooting rampage through Rancho Tehama.
Phommathep, 31, said she was dropping her children off at school when the gunman pulled up beside her truck and started shooting at them.
The children ducked, while the mother of four threw her body on top of them.
The mother was shot five times. Two of her children were hit, and a third sustained a shrapnel wound to the neck.
“I just kept on praying that he’d go away because I can’t take another bullet,” she told KCRA. “I knew I wouldn’t make it.”
Phommathep tore out of the school area as soon as Neal stopped shooting at her, fearful that he would return.
Bleeding and losing consciousness, she pleaded with four different passersby for help, and nobody would assist her.
One woman said she was running late to work, as the mother bled before her.
“Found some more strength to open my window, my door and I hopped out to [a woman] and asked her, ‘Can you help? I’m shot, I’m dying, and my kids are in the car,’” she said. “She said she couldn’t help me because she only had a two-seater and she was late for work. That hurt my heart a lot to hear her say that.”
Finally, it was Phil Johnston, an assistant sheriff of Tehama County, who pulled over to help the mother.
The sheriff called for help while he applied pressure to Phommathep’s wounds. Her family credits Sheriff Johnston for saving her life, according to the New York Post.
Three of her children were also injured in their neighbor’s shooting rampage.
Her son J.J., 10, was shot twice in the leg. Six-year-old Jake was shot in the foot. The 2-year-old suffered a shrapnel wound to the neck, according to KCRA. Her oldest son, 14, was not in the car.
“Other community members didn’t stop,” Johnny Phommathep told KTXL. “Me being a combat veteran and military police, I’m so grateful for Johnston within the community. To be honest, if not for that officer I wouldn’t have my wife.”
“My wife is a tough cookie to be shot and drive six, seven miles and bleeding to death,” he said.