RENTON, Wash. -- After gunshots erupted outside a bar in the East Renton Highlands, a bartender jumped in to help the shooting victim.
“Somebody’s hurt, you got to help them,” said the bartender who asked to remain anonymous.
The bartender says that after he heard three gunshots outside of the bar, he began to lock up until a customer came in bleeding from a gunshot wound.
“I went and proceeded to put pressure on the wound, and he started to come in and out of consciousness,” said the bartender.
The bartender said another customer helped him aid the victim until first responders arrived and took him to a hospital.
“It was a good thing he was here for sure,” said Nick Routos, Co-owner of Doofers Bar & Grill
Routos, the co-owner of Doofers, says his bartender has been working at his family-run bar for decades and that the victim is a “regular.”
“Thankfully, he should be ok from everything I’ve seen,” said Routos.
Routos says words were exchanged between his customer, who was outside the bar at the time, and a man who came from a wedding celebration held at a business next door.
“Someone from the banquet hall came over and shot one of our customers,” said Routos. “He was a guy from the party who was wearing, like, a satchel, basically over his chest.”
Both Routos and the bartender say they’ve seen violence from the neighboring business for years.
KIRO 7 reached out to the business but has not received a response.
The King County Sheriff’s Office told KIRO 7 they are still searching for the shooting suspect.
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