Teen Cobb Police Explorer Helps Save Life Of Stabbing Victim

MARIETTA, GA -- On Sunday, Sept. 9, Cobb County Police Explorer Cpl. Mario Alexander, 17, was instrumental in saving a life at a local Target store in Marietta on Cobb Parkway. Alexander is a Target employee, and when he saw that two fellow employees had been stabbed and cut by an escaped robbery suspect, he rushed to their assistance. When he saw that one of his team members was bleeding profusely from a wound in his arm, Alexander used the materials at his disposal to create a tourniquet and stem the flow of blood from a deep stab wound.

He then moved to the next team member and applied gauze and direct pressure to a neck wound. He continued to check on both of his fellow employees until medical personnel and police officers arrived on scene to take over.

Alexander credits the training he has received as a Cobb County Police Explorer for preparing him for this event. Among the various training they receive regarding police work in general, Explorers also receive specific training on applying tourniquets to wounds that might otherwise result in massive amounts of blood loss and possibly death.

Although he was without the proper field tourniquet, Alexander used his training to improvise and create a tourniquet using the materials he had on him while at work, in this case his work shirt. He continued to assist once first responders arrived by removing his improvised tourniquet as a more proper field tourniquet was applied by the first responding Marietta police officer.

The suspect, 27-year-old Michael Leon Thornton of Marietta, was later apprehended by police.