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A man living in a Connecticut halfway house passed up a job interview to save a wounded stranger’s life.
Aaron Tucker, 32, said he left the Isaiah House in Bridgeport, Conn. with less than two dollars in his pocket Wednesday morning.
The good Samaritan was en route to a job interview for a bus boy position at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in Stamford, Conn.
“I got up around 5 o’clock in the morning because I was so excited for the interview,” Tucker told the Daily News Thursday.
He said he left the house at around 9 a.m. and hopped on a packed bus.
When he awoke from a short nap, he saw an overturned vehicle on the road ahead of the bus in Westport.
“I looked up and saw a car flipped over right in front of the bus, so I ran to try to jump out of the bus,” Tucker told the Daily News.
But the driver of the bus was unconcerned by the smoking car — and by Tucker.
“I said I was going to help him, and asked the driver if he was going to wait for me and he said, ‘no, I am going to leave you,’” Tucker said.
Still, Tucker didn’t hesitate to help the victim.
“I saw a lot of smoke coming from the car and I just jumped off the bus and ran to the car,” he said.
He approached the vehicle from the passenger’s side so that he could unbuckle the driver’s seatbelt and remove him from the overturned car.
When he noticed the driver was bleeding from his head, he removed his shirt — one he’d been given to wear to his interview — and used it as a tourniquet to stop the man from bleeding.
Two men from a nearby auto body shop also came to the victim’s aide.
Tucker helped remove a male driver from the overturned vehicle in Wesport, Conn.
Tucker helped remove a male driver from the overturned vehicle in Wesport, Conn. (News 12 Connecticut)
“He kept shutting his eyes and I made sure he stayed awake. I told him to open his eyes, I said, ‘your family wants you,’” Tucker said.
An ambulance arrived and took the man to Norwalk Hospital where he is in stable condition, the Westport News reported.
Residents in Westport and beyond are hailing Tucker as a hero, saying he saved another man’s life.
But Tucker eschews the “hero” label and says he was simply at the right place, at the right time. “God put me there to be helpful,” he said.
He says his job interview was far from his thoughts as he rescued the man.
“It didn’t go through my head, because a job can come and go, but a life is only one time. The only thing running through my head is that person in the car could pass away and I could help him,” he said.
Tucker was a no-show at his interview, but his good deed has earned him three offers so far for jobs in construction and at a rubber factory.
He’s grateful but remains concerned for the man whose life he saved.
“I just want everybody to know it’s not about what people could do for me. It’s just about me saving his life,” he said.
Tucker, who is living in the halfway house after serving a 22-month sentence related to a weapons charge, remains focused on one goal: Getting a job so that he can support his 21-month-old son, who currently lives with his mother.
“When I come home he is going to live with me,” Tucker said. “I know that if I continue to work I am going to get a job because I am not going to go without supporting my son and raising my son to be happy.”
The Westport community is rallying around Tucker. A GoFundMe page has been created on his behalf.
As of Friday, it had raised more than $3,000 of a $10,000 goal.
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