PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — The clerk on duty at the Charlotte Harbor Chevron where Sergeant Elio Diaz was shot and killed on Sunday, told reporters she tried to save his life.
Watch Fox 4's Alex Orenczuk report on the woman who tried to save Sgt. Elio Diaz following a deadly shooting:
Michelle Pardo said she was behind the register at the Chevron when Sgt. Diaz made what would be his last traffic stop. She said she knew something was wrong.
“I had been keeping an eye on him because the traffic stop was long,” said Pardo. “I didn’t see anything too suspicious, I mean it looked funny but I would never have expected that.”
With one eye on the register and the other on Sgt. Diaz, Pardo said gunshots began to ring out.
“I was taking care of a customer and I heard all the gunshots,” said Pardo. “I heard several of them and I turned around and I looked through the window, the window right by the counter and I saw him laying there.”
She said she immediately called 911 and ran outside to help.
“So I ran up to him and I was talking to him trying to get his attention and he did say something to me but I don't remember what he said, my brain won't let me remember what he said or decipher what he said I guess,” Pardo said. “I checked for a pulse and I didn't feel anything but I saw him breathing.”
That’s when Pardo started CPR, being guided by a 911 dispatcher.
“She was talking me through how to do CPR and so I started and I was doing it for a little bit but there was a gentleman who did show up and he looked like he knew what he was doing so I said ‘please take over I can't do it anymore.”
Pardo said just seconds later first responders were on scene, and took Sgt. Diaz to the hospital where he would later die from his injuries.
While the community grieves the loss of a first responder, Pardo said she hopes Sgt. Diaz’s family knows she did everything she could to help.
“I tried, I need them to know that I did try, I really did,” she said.
Deputies found, and subsequently shot and killed the suspect, Andrew Mostyn, Jr at a nearby Popeye’s, after he reached for a rifle, the sheriff’s office said.
A small memorial for Sgt. Diaz has been started in front of the Chevron where the shooting took place.
