The call came in at 7:11 a.m. on June 25 from an address on Schoolhouse Road. Columbus dispatchers answering 911 heard a woman screaming and nothing else.
Columbus police officers lunged into action, arriving at what turned out to be a medical emergency and performing CPR that would end up prolonging a man’s life for a week.
Officer Lance Luckey, an eight-year veteran of the Columbus Police Department, had been on patrol about three hours when he and Officer Eric Potts responded to the call. Dispatchers had told the officers the only sound coming through the call was a woman screaming. They assumed they were heading into a domestic violence situation.
On a street close to Schoolhouse Road, Officer Andres Rodriguez also heard about the call over the radio. Since he was nearby, he headed toward the house to back up Luckey and Potts.
Upon arrival, the house was quiet and the door was locked, Luckey said. The officers knocked on the door. No answer.
Luckey glanced through an open window and spotted a young man — authorities later said he was 21 — lying on the floor of the house. He wasn’t moving.
“I immediately hollered, ‘Kick the door, kick the door!'” Luckey said later.
It took the officers — who still thought they come upon the aftermath of a domestic dispute — about 30 seconds to clear the house, Rodriguez said. Then they checked on the unconscious man.
He wasn’t breathing and he had no pulse. That’s when Rodriguez and Luckey began CPR.
“You don’t really feel anything,” Rodriguez said. “You see a body on the floor, everything just goes out the window. …You just have to do it. That’s exactly what we train for.”
Both Rodriguez and Luckey had performed CPR before, both on and off the job. Rodriguez was recognized in February for performing CPR on a shooting victim outside the Princess Theater. Luckey, in addition to being a police officer, has been a volunteer firefighter at the Lowndes County Fire Department. They both reported that when they see a body on the floor now, their training kicks in and they automatically know what to do without thinking about it.
They didn’t stop the CPR until Columbus Fire and Rescue arrived a few minutes later — though not before the victim’s mother entered the house. She had apparently made the 911 call before running to a neighbor’s house. Potts kept her back from Luckey and Rodriguez while they tried to get the victim breathing again.
“I’d rather not have a parent see what we have to do to a child,” Luckey said.
An ambulance took the victim to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle. Luckey drove the victim’s mother to the hospital and stayed with her until other family members arrived. Rodriguez headed back to the CPD to fill out a report. Minutes later, he was back patrolling.
CPD have not officially released the name of the victim, but he stayed in critical condition in the intensive care unit until Friday when he died of complications from dialysis. His family reported that his health had been deteriorating before his collapse the week before his death, said Columbus Public Information Officer Joe Dillon.
Rodriguez hadn’t realized the victim had even made it to the hospital until a couple of days later. For he and Luckey, it was another tough day in a job full of tough days.
“You just try to deal with it the best way you can,” Rodriguez said.
“I just go play with my kid,” he added. “Just get my mind completely off what I did that day and just replace it with something else.”
“Go home and enjoy the family,” Luckey agreed. “A lot of times, my wife and I just talk about what went on that day and then we move on to family time.”
Still they both say that’s why they became cops — to help people.
“I want to help people,” Luckey said. “I want to make a difference in life.”
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