Pittsburgh trauma doctor ran into active shooting to save others
UPMC trauma doctor, Keith Murray, demonstrates how to apply a tourniquet during a Stop the Bleed training. (Photo: Submitted by UPMC)
Dr. Keith Murray was helping his 3-year-old son get ready for a costume party on Saturday morning when he saw a phone alert he couldn’t ignore.
He kissed his wife and kids goodbye, unsure if he’d return. There’s an inherent risk to being both a UPMC Mercy trauma doctor and member of the Pittsburgh SWAT team.
His wife worries, but she understands why he does it: for the guys, for the SWAT team. “To give them an extra chance to get home to their families should they get injured,” Murray said. “On Saturday, that worked.”
Murray got into his truck at about 10 a.m. and raced from his Fox Chapel home for Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill, where an active shooter was reported.
The drive to that part of town normally takes 16 minutes. It took less that morning, and the 42-year-old Murray admits he probably broke some traffic laws.
He stopped his truck in the front yard of a house near the synagogue. He spotted a fellow SWAT officer and together they sprinted toward the place of worship.
This is the part when Murray turns off his emotions. He talks about how he was trained for moments like this. During drills, SWAT teams respond to scenes where mannequins are covered in fake blood and brains. They prepare for mass casualties and bombs. They train for what they might see.
“Was it horrific inside the synagogue? Yes. Are we trained for that? Yes,” Murray said.
He identified 11 people dead at the scene, knowing he couldn’t help them. The trauma doctor focused on who he could save.
Murray saw an elderly couple hiding in a corner and helped usher them to safety. In the main sanctuary, he saw five bodies initially and noticed one was alive. She was in shock and shot in the arm. Murray applied a tourniquet, turning the second floor of the synagogue into a triage unit. Dr. Lenny Weiss, a UPMC doctor who lives near the synagogue, also went to the synagogue to stop blood loss and save lives.
A floor above them, a shootout raged between SWAT officers and the killer.
One SWAT officer was shot seven times and critically injured.
“He was bleeding everywhere from multiple wounds,” he said.
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