Fort Worth officer recalls saving fellow officer's life

Fort Worth police say a fellow officer likely saved the life of Officer Matt Pearce when he was shot on the job in March.

Officer Brandi Kamper rushed in to bandage every bullet hole she found in officer Pearce's body when he was hit seven times during a shootout with a fugitive and his son.

The officers used to teach first aid at the academy together for five years. But never in a million years did Kamper think she'd be using it on one of her closest friends.

The two address the media on Friday at the Bob Bolen Police Headquarters in south Fort Worth.

With Pearce at her side, Kamper described how she wasn't even supposed to be at work that day and had borrowed a radio because hers was broken. When she heard Pearce was wounded, she gathered her tactical medical bag so fast she even forgot her gun.

Kamper says another blessing was Care-flight just happened to be flying in the area. She was stunned to see how badly wounded Pearce was. She says she just used the gift the two of them taught other officers and prayed it would pay off.

"This whole thing is a God thing from start to finish. I cannot say that enough,” she said. “This is a God thing and a team thing because my part in this was such a small gear and such a huge machine of everything clicking together for a map to survive.”

As Pearce continues his recovery, he plans to be back in uniform and on duty by March 1. That day would be just two weeks shy of a year when he was shot multiple times and nearly died in a field in West Fort Worth.