VANCOUVER, Wash. (KATU) — Kevyn Tomasini said he did what any parent would do if they found themselves in this situation – when gunshots rang out at the Vancouver mall, his instinct was to protect his children, but what he did next went beyond that.

“Once they were covered, protected, I, you know, kind of locked down the men’s safety, of course, I started looking around, to make sure anyone was okay, and that’s when I had to realize that we were not. very far from the body of the deceased,” Tomasini said. “When I was there, I looked and found Daniel sitting there, holding his two sons with the bullet hole in their foot.”

Daniel Martín was protecting his own children, while he had a bullet lodged in his foot.

“The only thing I could find was some napkins on the counter, you know, so I grabbed some, grabbed as many napkins as I could and wrapped it up until it was a nice solid napkin, applied pressure on it, kept the pressure on while the whole time I he was there, the whole time he kept the kids distracted and he also did a very good job of doing it,” Tomasini said. “So that gave me a chance to do my thing, you know, wrap them up, I ended up finding a belt, I got a belt, I tied it up, you know, and I kept pushing it, it held it tight, you know, as long as I could until they came the police and the paramedics.”

Martin was the one who told KATU about this heroic act, but he didn’t know who this man was.

“I don’t know who gave me his belt to use as a tourniquet, but whoever gave it to me was grateful,” Martin said.

Although Tomasini and Martin were mere strangers, Tomasini knew a lot about Martin. “You don’t deserve that to happen to you,” Tomasini said.