Retired doctor says he was first on scene to help Vancouver shooting victim

VANCOUVER – A retired physician says he relied on his years of experience as a trauma doctor when he helped a man seconds after he was shot outside a Vancouver coffee shop.

Sixty-six-year-old Cliff Chase of Vancouver says he was leaving a store in the city’s downtown on Tuesday when his wife told him a man had been shot.

Chase says he found the man unconscious, barely breathing, and going into shock, with a decreasing pulse and bleeding out.

Chase says he used a towel from the coffee shop to put pressure on a wound on the man’s back, opened up his airways and tried to keep him stable until an ambulance arrived.

Vancouver police have not named the victim, although an employee at local bike shop confirmed its owner, Paul Dragan, was the shooting victim. He’s in hospital in critical condition.

The shooting was the spark for two police-involved gun fights with a man who was shot by police and is under guard in hospital.