On July 7, shooter Micah Johnson fired a barrage of bullets towards officers and citizens in downtown Dallas.
Those who were struck were not alone, however. That night, Dallas paramedics risked their own lives to try and get to the wounded.
"I had guys who got back to the station who said they had bullets whizzing by their heads,” said Cristian Hinojosa, the president of the Latino Firefighters Association. It’s one of the reasons Dallas Fire-Rescue put a rush on an order for 21 armor-plated vests that had happened to have been ordered the same day of the shooting, before the gunfire rang out.
"They were being told by police to stay back, but they knew there was a Dallas downed officer ahead of them, and so they drove into the hot zone and were taking fire to get that officer into the ambulance,” said Jim McDade, the president of the Dallas Firefighters Association. A Dallas police officer posted on his Facebook shortly after the shooting, "Fire did not get enough credit. They were moving with us in ambulances toward Market Street toward the gunfire. Every single time we told them to get out of the shooting zone, the driver would keep yelling, ‘Just tell us where they are,’ referring to our downed officers.”