Judith Watson found it unsurprising that she heard gunfire outside the Mount Vernon Neighborhood Health Center in New York’s Westchester County.
Shootings are increasingly common in the once-quiet community. Watson was still in her office after 6 p.m. recently when shots rang out on the street in front of the center. Moments later the victim, Jaheim Vassel, 21, came staggering toward the center’s front door.
Watson, the center’s CEO, sprang into action. A U.S. Army veteran and a registered nurse, she quickly stabilized Vassel, who had a bullet wound in his thigh. “He was a bit in shock,” she recalled.
Watson said she was thrilled to be able to help the young man with skills she rarely uses anymore outside of vaccination drives. “With the exception of a few hundred shots that I delivered during COVID, I haven’t practiced much recently.”
Paramedics soon arrived and took him to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. Watson talked to Vassel’s father the next day, and he said his son was recovering.