Shots fired and a related motor vehicle crash in the area of Warwick Circle, Pocono Farms East.

So this happened to me this morning:

I was outside hanging laundry when I heard six gunshots fired from behind my house about two blocks away. One, two…one, two……one, two. There was a longer pause between the 4th shot and the 5th and 6th shots, than the previous four shots. I could tell this was deliberate gunfire and not fireworks. I called to my wife to call 911 and I did the same. As soon as I hung up with the operator, I heard tires squealing loudly somewhere on Coach Rd. I turned to see a black car careening left from Rob Roy Rd. onto Coach Rd. and then this car sped up the road and out of my sight. Simultaneously to seeing the black car go screaming up the road I heard a loud car crash. I had begun running when I heard the squealing tires moments before and I called to my wife to call 911 back to report a car accident on Coach. I was the first person on the scene (maybe the owner of the house was I’m not sure) that I could see. I saw three young hispanic women aged about 17-21 having just poured out of the car with various injuries but minimal blood. The car was still running. I yelled to an old woman that I know who had come outside of her house to see what happened to call 911 to report the exact address of the accident.

Laying next to the car was the driver who obviously had a broken ankle. All three women only spoke Spanish and I do not speak Spanish. Nonetheless I did what I could. I went into the car to turn it off, but the key was jammed in the ignition. After playing with it for a few moments I used a motion that I thought was going to snap the key off; however, I was fortunate to get the ignition off even though I couldn’t pull out the keys. There was dust from the airbags everywhere and after about a minute that finally began to settle and it became easier to breathe. At this point I saw the owner of the house come out into her yard on her phone and I could hear her talking to 911. I called 911 too and told them the exact location of the accident, I described the nature of the injuries as far as I could tell, and I told them to send someone who speaks Spanish because all of the women only appeared to be able to communicate in Spanish.

I hung up my phone, exited the car and tossed my phone to an older African-American neighbor that had appeared on the scene. When I exited the car I found one girl dressed in a black tank top doubled over in pain next to the driverl. This girl seemed incredibly anxious and as the adrenaline dumped into her body she became less aware of her own injuries across her midsection and she became hysterical. It was clear that she was very concerned for the driver. The driver meanwhile was in excruciating pain from her broken ankle. Now, like I said, I don't speak Spanish, but it was very clear to me that this young woman was pleading with me to fix her ankle. Wow, did I feel helpless at that point, on account of the fact that I have exactly zero medical training in my life. The only thing that got me out of this ankle conundrum was the fact that the young driver was succumbing to her head injuries. She did have blood that had run down her face from a contusion near her eye; and a slightly bloody nose whose blood had already begun to dry.

She rolled to her side and began to slip in and out of consciousness. About the only thing I do know in a head injury is to support the neck and keep them awake until help arrives. Recalling that I had seen her able to move her neck freely when she was writhing in agony a few minutes ago, I was pretty sure her neck injuries didn’t extend beyond whiplash. So, I tilted her back flat on her back and cupped her head with my left hand, and with my right hand would tell her to “stay awake” and “that everything was going to be ok” while I literally opened her eyelids. This seemed to work. She seemed annoyed enough to stay awake for a few more seconds each time and she would start to roll back onto her side. After a few minutes of doing this, two police officers, a young white man and a young hispanic woman arrived on the scene. I gently laid her head back on the ground and the female officer took over caring for the young woman. I was so relieved to have someone on scene who could now directly communicate in Spanish with the young women.

The last woman that was on the scene was actually the first person I came across as I ran up the street to my neighbor’s yard. She had lime green braces. She was standing in the driveway pleading for help. I asked her where she was hurt and she pointed to her left arm and she began crying. I told her to stay where she was away from the car until I could get it turned off. I had no idea if she understood me. I then saw the other young woman in the black tank top doubled over in pain and I asked her where she was hurt. She could only respond in Spanish and eventually pointed to her midsection. I could see the worst person off at this point was the driver who pained to show me her broken ankle. I stepped over her and into the car to turn the car off. When I got back out I could see the girl with the lime green braces had stopped crying and had chosen to lay down with her feet up on a suitcase that had fallen out of the back of the car during the crash. Her face was contorted with pain, but she seemed calm and alert, unlike the driver; which is why I chose to stay with the driver prior to help arriving.

As the two officers tended to the driver I sat next to the woman with the green braces once again feeling unsure about what to do. It felt weird to reassure her in English because who knows if she’d understand me. She had her hands on top of each other on her stomach, so I just put my hand gently on top of hers. We stayed this way for a minute or two until she pulled her hand away to scratch her nose. EMS began arriving on the scene at this point so I didn’t put my hand back. I stood up and I told them that I’d seen to each girl’s injuries and that the driver’s injuries appeared to be the worst. I then told them all of the injuries I was able to ascertain. At this point many police cars began rolling in and setting up a perimeter. At some point in all of this my wife Grace showed up with towels because she thought the injured might be bleeding (because of the gunshots we heard earlier) and that’s why they crashed. Grace did prove to be incredibly useful in calming down the woman in the black tank top who had become quite hysterical. I know at some point after the cops arrived and before I sat next to the woman with the lime braces I tried to calm down the woman in the black tank top, but she just didn’t respond well to me. However, Grace recognized that this young woman was having a panic attack and helped talk her through it the best she could. Grace was very motherly and soothing and it had a pronounced effect on calming the girl down and making her able to detail her own injuries to the paramedics.

Enough ambulances showed up at this point to get out the gurneys and to begin loading the young women up. All were placed in neck braces and one by one were taken away to the hopsital. My wife and I stayed in an adjacent driveway for a bit processing everything we’d just witnessed with some of the other neighbors. And, while I am no Poirot in this case, it seems to me that these young women may have been fleeing from being shot at and that the car that I saw screeching around the corner from Rob Roy onto Coach was attempting to cut off the car the young women were in. Then when the people in this other vehicle saw the young girls crash headlong and full speed into a sturdy tree they just kept going. Please take this conclusion with a grain of salt, and I could be wrong. After all, I have very little information leading up to the car accident and absolutely no backstories on any of the people involved. In the end, all I can say is this: these beautiful young women have a whole life ahead of them and I would hate to think that whatever they were wrapped up in will negatively affect the trajectory of their entire lives. I sincerely wish them the best life has to offer; may they heal quickly.
 

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