FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — On Friday night, Aug. 26, at the Washington County Fair, the fun quickly turned into fear after reports of an active shooter.
"We thought it was a fire at first because I didn't see anything," said fair attendee Maddi McMillan.
Katie Center and two other first responders with Fayetteville police and the Springdale Fire Department were some of the first to help the boy who was shot.
"I mean people were just scattering everywhere,” Center said. “There's kids going everywhere, adults going everywhere, horses going everywhere."
Center was in the middle of it, face-to-face with the shooting victim.
"I walk up on a kid with three fingers pretty much missing and a thigh gunshot," Center said.
The tree used their belts as tourniquets to slow down the bleeding.
"Because out of everyone running around, we were the only three that stepped in,” Center said. Stepping in to help, even though her husband and 16-year-old daughter were stuck in the middle of chaos.
"The main thing on my mind was to get this kid help,” Center said. “If it was my kid, I would want someone to have my kid."
She says that her background in law enforcement taught her not to panic, isolate and help.
"He needed help,” she said. “That's why me and the other guys that's why we stepped in and did it, that's what we do."
On Sunday night, Aug. 28, Fayetteville police announced the arrest of a 16-year-old boy for the shooting. He's facing aggravated assault, first and second-degree battery, and aggravated riot.
No other information has been released at this time.
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