INDIANAPOLIS – An Iowa man is thanking two police officer brothers for helping to save his life after he was caught in the crossfire of a shootout in downtown Indianapolis.
Jim Meyer was in Indianapolis the weekend of July 25 for his son’s AAU basketball tournament. While Meyer was walking along Georgia Street with a friend in the early morning hours, he suddenly heard gunshots.
“We started running and then kind of slowed down because we weren’t really sure what was going on,” Meyer said on the phone Wednesday.
As Meyer jumped for cover, he was hit by a bullet in the upper leg.
“I could feel blood or something warm going down my leg and then we looked down and there was a puddle of blood,” Meyer said.
As Meyer was losing blood, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Officer Brian Silcox was first to arrive on the scene.
“There was a lot of blood loss, so the first thing we try to do is to stop the bleeding as much as we can,” Silcox said.
Moments later, Silcox heard the familiar voice of his brother, Indiana State Police Sergeant Rich Silcox.
“We heard the shots, as I come around the corner down this direction, I saw my brother applying a tourniquet to a guy who’d been shot in the upper left leg,” Rich Silcox said. “The one tourniquet wasn’t stopping the blood totally, so I applied another tourniquet to his upper left leg.”
Rich Silcox doesn’t normally work in downtown Indianapolis, but Indiana State Police have been running directed downtown patrols in order to assist IMPD in light of increasing gun violence in the area.
Suddenly, two brothers from different police agencies were working side by side to save Meyer’s life.
“it’s definitely weird just to hear somebody’s voice that you grew up with for the last 40 years you know,” Brian Silcox said. “it was pretty amazing.”
“Those two did a terrific job of keeping me calm,” Meyer said.
In hindsight, Meyer said he wasn’t surprised to learn the two officers treating him were brothers.
“You could just tell that they were in sync together,” he recalled. “And I felt like I was in very good hands.”
The Silcox brothers said they have responded to the same calls in the past, but they’ve never crossed paths or worked in close quarters at the same scene.
“It really is an honor,” Rich Silcox said. “It’s pretty cool to pull up to somewhere or take a call with him and work side-by-side with each other.”
Their efforts worked. The Silcox brothers were able to stop Meyer’s bleeding long enough for medics to rush him to surgery at Eskenazi Hospital. Meyer is now back home recovering in Iowa. He hopes to be back on his feet, walking freely in the next couple months.
“I owe them my life, there’s no doubt about it,” Meyer said. “Given a second chance has just been amazing. My wife and son and I, we couldn’t repay them enough. It’s been very emotional.”
In the heat of the moment, the Silcox brothers say they didn’t give much thought to the unique situation they were in together. They were focused on keeping Meyer alive. However, they’ve had time since then to reflect on the experience they shared.
“When it’s over, you have a time to step back and really appreciate, ‘Hey I was able to work with you and we were able to do something good,’” Rich Silcox said. “This is what we do. I’m glad he’s okay, and I’m glad we were able to help him.”
“I think our mom and dad thought about it more, about us doing it together than we did at the time,” Brian Silcox said. “I hope he has a speedy recovery, and I hope everything worked out well for him, and that he’s back to normal before he knows it.”
Police arrested 26-year-old Carnell Williams shortly after the shooting that injured Meyer. Williams is charged with two counts of criminal recklessness and one count of carrying a handgun without a license.
