“We were hungry and asked the driver to take us to eat,” she said. “On the way back from a gas station, we stopped at a traffic light and heard someone screaming for help.”

The bus was at the intersection of South Broadway and Walnut, waiting for the signal to change.

“When we asked where it came from, the driver pointed to this man in front of his car at the intersection,” she said.

Both girls told the driver they wanted to get out to see what was going on.

“I jumped out and we came to this man standing in front of the passenger seat and another man sitting in the passenger seat. He held his neck and said, ‘My son just got shot,'” she said.

Unbeknownst to them, the teenager in the passenger seat was Colin Brown and the man calling for help was his father. Both were driving on I-55 minutes earlier when police said a bullet came through the windshield and hit Colin.

Paniucki knew she had been placed there for a reason. She told Brown’s father she was an emergency medical technician.

“When I look back, I’m glad, I’m so glad that I was there to sort of take charge and do what was best for that child in that moment,” she said.

Paniucki graduated from the Respond Right EMS Academy in St. Peters a month ago. She plans to complete medical training next year before eventually joining the fire department.

The skills she learned in school play out in a real life or death crisis.

“I could see he was putting pressure on a wound on the front of his neck,” she said. “I couldn’t find a pulse, so I knew we had to start CPR immediately.”

With help from her friend and Colin’s father, the three lifted him out of the seat, she said, and laid him flat on the pavement, where she began CPR.

“The father could barely breathe himself given what had just happened, as if anyone else had problems,” she said. “But when I told him to ventilate his son along with my compressions, he breathed for his son.”

After she performed CPR for about 10 minutes, another passerby approached Paniucki and offered to relieve her. The two continued CPR for another ten minutes before an ambulance arrived.

According to 911 dispatch logs, a 911 call was made at 10:36 p.m. Police responded and deemed the scene safe at 10:46 p.m. The first fire engine arrived at 10:50 p.m. and the ambulance arrived at 10:52 p.m

Brown remains in the hospital fighting for his life. Paniucki said she was grateful she was there to give him the best chance possible.

“When I heard someone screaming for help like that, I didn’t have time to sit around and worry or question myself,” she said. “I immediately jumped into action and everything became clear to me.”

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