Postal Worker Hailed As Hero After Saving Shooting Victim In Carmichael Standoff

CARMICHAEL (CBS13) — A local postal worker went from delivering mail to diving away from bullets on Monday.

Scott Gallegos doesn't mind the extra attention he's getting on his postal route. After all, he helped save someone's life.

His heroic moves came on Monday morning as he was delivering mail in the 6000 block of Madison Avenue. He came face-to-face with a woman in desperate need of help.

"She came on my side and banged on my window, and I saw her wounds and she was full of blood," he said.

Investigators say she had just been shot by Jeremiah Hankins, the man at the center of Monday's standoff. When the victim saw the postman, she made her move.

Gallegos, a military veteran who's only been on the job four weeks didn't hesitate to help.

"I laid her down, took off my shirt, and put pressure on her wounds, and called 911 and kept us behind the van so we'd be blocked from the house he was in," he said.

When deputies arrived, the gunman opened fire.

Knowing they had to get the victim help, Gallegos saw an opening in some nearby bushes. They were shielded by two patrol cars and his postal truck.

"I yelled at one of the officers, we can pull her through there," he said. "So I went through and pulled the bushes back and he dragged her on through, and we got her across the street."

That's when an ambulance was able to pick her up. Gallegos got into a sheriff's patrol car to get out of harm's way.