ST CHARLES, Mo. — In the early hours of Saturday morning, it was a St. Louis County couple who would help save the life of the woman shot at Ameristar Casino.
In a 5 On Your Side exclusive, Annie Krall spoke to the hero bystanders who jumped into action as the victim was bleeding in the St. Charles parking garage.
"I wasn't trying to be a hero or anything, just like— 'Okay. She's hurt for real," wife Diane Lewis said.
Along with her husband, Allen Lewis, the pair from Bridgeton didn't expect to act as first responders Saturday as Diane was leaving a night out and Allen was coming to get her at the Ameristar Casino.
"He was helping me put my seatbelt on, and then, all of a sudden, we heard 'Help. Help.' We were both like 'huh?'" Diane said. "I looked out, and then, he looked out. I ended up getting out of the car. This young lady runs up, and she has blood all over her. She runs up and says, 'Help. Help. I've been shot."
The shooting happened around 2:30 am on the second level of the Ameristar Casino's parking garage.
Lieutenant Shawn Hoselton with St. Charles Police said officers found a 27-year-old woman shot in the neck.
"Preliminary investigations at the scene revealed that the suspect and the victim are in a relationship," Lt. Hoselton said.
We still don't know the name of the woman, but she told police the man who shot her was her 50-year-old boyfriend, Calvin Koong.
St. Charles Police said Ameristar surveillance video shows a man shoving a woman into a car.
She tried to escape, quickly finding the Lewis couple.
"When she came up, blood was running down her neck and everywhere," Diane said. "I put pressure on her neck. Allen, he's looking around, like 'Okay. You just got shot. There is a shooter around here.' He's going into defense mode like, 'Who is out here?'"
Diane was a Navy medic for eight years. Allen was also a local caregiver.
Neither thought to run away when the woman came fleeing toward them in distress. Diane quickly put her hand over the woman's wound. Allen said he didn't see the shooter at all but was on high alert as security guards came rushing over with a first aid kit. Providing gauze to Diane for the woman's neck.
Not long after, paramedics took the 27-year-old victim to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
As the woman was being put in the ambulance on the stretcher, "she looked over at me, and she caught my eyes. She kept my eyes, and she put her arm out again," Diane told Krall. "I said, 'I can't come over there, honey. I can't come over there.' That messed me up a little bit. That was too much. Somebody literally tried to take your life."
Investigators said Koong, a St. Louis man, was arrested at the scene and confessed, saying, 'I shot her.'
"Hopefully, our professional doctors did what they had to do and put her back together as normal as she can be," Allen said.
We reached out to St. Charles Police on Sunday, but they didn't have an update on how the woman's medical condition.
Koong has been charged with domestic assault, armed criminal action and kidnapping.
He was being held on a $500,000 cash-only bond.