A 16-year-old boy is in stable condition after an accidental shooting Friday.
It was a little after 8 p.m. Friday when Cami Brown and her husband Jacob settled their two children in to watch a movie before bed. But before the parents joined them they stepped outside onto the front porch patio.
That's when Cami heard shrill screams and voices packed with panic. Within seconds she was in a sprint toward the source on South Seward Street, dialing 911 as she ran.
"I just knew something wasn't right," she said.
As she rounded the corner she heard a woman, later identified as Lori Rowland-Payne of Kansas, Okla., begging for information from the people who stood around her.
"I heard a woman screaming 'Was it Christian? Christian was shot?'," Cami said. "People were just standing there in shock saying they couldn't find the phone."
Without hesitation, Cami ran past the woman, through the apartment's front door and climbed a ladder to a second-story loft where she came upon a scene that will stick with her for a lifetime.
"This kid had blood all over his hands and face and was repeating, 'Oh God, no. I'm sorry. I love you, man'," Cami said.
The unidentified 15-year-old boy was covered in the blood of 16-year-old Christian Rowland of Kansas, Okla., -- his best friend. Rowland lay there bleeding.
Cami was still on the phone with a 911 dispatcher when she knelt next to Rowland.
"Tell me what to do and I will do it," she said to the dispatcher. That's when she grabbed a piece of cloth and applied pressure to the boy's ear -- where a .45-caliber bullet entered his head.
"(Rowland) was talking the whole time, saying to hold his head because it hurt," Cami said.
Paramedics soon arrived and took over for Cami. They stabilized Rowland and transported him by helicopter ambulance to Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville. He was then transferred to Arkansas Children's Hospital pediatric intensive care unit in Little Rock, police said.
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Before the accident, the two teenage boys were upstairs handling the pistol when it accidentally discharged, according to the media release issued by the Siloam Springs Police Department. Upon police and medic arrival, they found Rowland with a single gunshot wound to the head.
On Monday, a man who identified himself only as Rowland's older brother answered the door to the apartment on South Seward Street, where the shooting happened. He said it was his aunt's home.
"Christian is an avid hunter and has handled guns his whole life," the man said. "They asked to clean the gun but they didn't check it first -- this was purely an accident and we told the police that we don't want to press charges."
The cloth the boys used to clean the pistol was the same one that Cami used to apply pressure to the gunshot wound.
"She saved Christian," the man said of Cami. "I think she was a nurse or something."
"I've taken CPR and Red Cross first aid classes, but I'm not a nurse," Cami said. "I really don't know what came over me -- I don't like blood and I'm a very emotional person -- but I can't imagine how anyone wouldn't react the same."
She said that she is worried about both of the boys and how they will recover from the accident.
"I've been worried sick -- they're just little boys and I feel so bad for them -- it's something that will affect them for the rest of their lives."
"You can teach your children gun safety and they can have all the training and know-how to handle a gun but they're still children and this can happen," Cami said. "I don't think they were negligent parents -- it seemed like they had the training and this still happened -- that's the tragedy of it."
• • •
Rowland's mother, Lori, posted an update of Christian's condition to Cami's Facebook page. The boy was shot in the ear and the bullet exited through his neck, Lori wrote in the post. The bullet struck an artery in his neck and impacted his ear drum.
"He has no hearing as of yet," she wrote.
Rowland remains at Children's Hospital where his status is stable but critical.
To aid the family through Rowland's recovery, Cami started a collection account for donations online at GoFundMe.com.
"Thank you Cami for all you have done and (sic) are doing," Lori commented. "My son is so blessed."
To donate visit http://www.gofundme.com/ej578c
General News on 09/17/2014