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CINCINNATI (WXIX) – A Metro bus driver is being credited with helping save a young boy who was shot Tuesday in East Price Hill after she stopped her route to perform CPR.
Briona Akins was driving her regular route on Warsaw Avenue Tuesday evening when she saw people running, jumping and crying. She pulled over to check on the scene.
“I seen a young boy laying in between the curb and the street. He had blood coming out of his head and I quickly gathered that he had been shot,” Akins said.
Driver used prior CPR training
Akins had received CPR training at a previous job with a yellow bus company and used it at the scene.
“I called 911 immediately and I ran over to the boy and turnt him over on his back and started chest compressions. I realized I was going to have to help this boy’s heartbeat,” Akins said.
Briona Akins says she reacted without fear after seeing blood and a crowd running on Warsaw Avenue on Tuesday.(wxix)
Akins has been with Metro for less than a year.
As she performed CPR, she said she could feel the boy taking deep breaths and trying to keep his eyes open.
“It was a faint heartbeat, but it was still beating through his chest. He definitely still had some life in him, and I wasn’t the first to see the young boy, but I was the first to react, and I would like to think me reacting encouraged others to come over and help,” Akins said.
Driver says she wasn’t afraid
Akins said she did not know how dangerous the scene was but said she goes to work every day with faith and ready to help.
“Fear didn’t take over at all. I just seen a young boy in the street that needed help. I seen a young boy that had a mom that would be more than likely be devastated if he didn’t come home,” Akins said.
Akins’ mother and father were also present. Akins said her kind heart is something she has always had.
“I said, ‘You know you’re a hero, don’t you?’ She said, ‘No, I just did what I needed to do,’ but she’s always been like that,” a family member said.
Police are still investigating the shooting, which happened Tuesday evening around 8 p.m. in the 3700 block of Warsaw Avenue.
Akins said she wants what happened to be a message to people to not be afraid to help others and to always be willing to step in when needed.
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