A military veteran who gave CPR to Wisconsin protest shooting victim Anthony Huber has spoken out about her traumatic experience trying to revive the killed 26-year-old.
Carol Badoni, 50, told DailyMail.com she was trying to join in with a peaceful protest in Kenosha last Tuesday night when she heard shots ring out and panic ensued.
The brave 20-year armed forces veteran, who left the military after being shot twice herself while serving in Afghanistan, sprinted towards the gunfire and tried to revive Huber with CPR until a SWAT team arrived.
‘I was walking down Sheridan Road and all of a sudden shots started ringing out: bang, bang, bang,’ Badoni said. ‘People started screaming ”People have been shot, oh my god.” They were yelling at the police.
‘More bullets started ringing out and everyone started running in the opposite direction. But I decided to run towards the bullets because I saw a gentleman to my right and one to my left that were on the ground.
‘I decided to run towards a particular person, it ended up being Anthony.’
Anthony Huber, 26, was shot and killed at a protest for the killing of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin last Tuesday
Carol Badoni, 50, gave CPR To Huber after he was shot, telling DailyMail.com about the traumatic experience. The Afghanistan veteran said she was trying to join in with the peaceful protest when she heard shots ring out and panic ensued, running towards the gunfire. Pictured: Huber struggling with the gunman moments before he was shot dead
Badoni (pictured) said: ‘More bullets started ringing out and everyone started running in the opposite direction. But I decided to run towards the bullets because I saw a gentleman to my right and one to my left that were on the ground. I decided to run towards a particular person, it ended up being Anthony’
Huber, 26, was shot dead along with Texas native Joseph Rosenbaum, 36. Local medic Gaige Grosskreutz was shot in the arm but survived.
Following the shooting, police charged 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse with two homicides and one attempted homicide – writing in their complaint that he used an AR-15 style rifle and called a friend as he ran away from the murders saying ‘I just killed somebody.’
‘There were a lot of people around him, screaming, hollering and trying to get him to wake up and breathe,’ Badoni said.
‘People were trying to take his clothes off to see where the bullet was. I couldn’t see any blood, but he was already face down.
‘I told everybody ‘Please back up’ and we rolled him over. I felt the pulse on his neck, there was none. His eyes were rolled back into his head, he was not breathing.
‘I decided to start CPR. After I did about 10 or 15 pumps, the SWAT came up behind me and took control of the situation.’
The veteran, who served as a US Marshal after leaving the military, said she saw Huber’s girlfriend Hannah Gittings running towards the gruesome scene, screaming for help.
‘As he was being taken into the truck his girlfriend Hannah was coming down the street screaming ‘Oh my god, that’s my boyfriend, please let me see him,’ Badoni said.
‘It was terrible to see this gentleman pretty much dead and to see her frantic and trying to get to see her boyfriend. It’s a scene I’ll never forget.
‘I couldn’t sleep after. It’s an overwhelming and nightmarish kind of feeling.’
Following the shooting, police charged 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse with two homicides and one attempted homicide – writing in their complaint that he used an AR-15 style rifle and called a friend as he ran away from the murders saying ‘I just killed somebody’
Huber stumbled away from the gunman clutching his chest (right) as another man appeared to put his hands up in front of the shooter
Huber could be seen hitting the gunman over the head with a skateboard before struggling with the gunman as gunshots rang out and people fled from the scene
The 50-year-old mother-of-one said she was wracked with guilt for not being able to save Huber, despite her heroic efforts, and asked his family for forgiveness.
‘I tried so hard to save him. I feel devastated and sick to my stomach that I could not,’ she said.
‘I feel they might blame me that I couldn’t save their son. I wanted to try to reassure them that I felt like I did everything that was in my power to give him CPR until somebody more qualified than me could take the reins.
‘I thought if I could bring him back and just make him breathe, perhaps he could have a fighting chance.’
The Kenosha protests were fueled by a police shooting of Jacob Blake, 29, on August 23.
Seven-year Kenosha PD veteran Rusten Sheskey shot Blake seven times in the back during an arrest, leaving him paralyzed.
Sheskey, 31, has been put on administrative leave while Wisconsin officials investigate the confrontation caught on video.
The Blake family attorney, Benjamin Crump, said it would take a ‘miracle’ for Blake to recover use of his legs.
‘The medical diagnosis right now is that he is paralyzed, because those bullets severed his spinal cord,’ he said at a press conference last Tuesday.
‘He will need a miracle to walk again. He is currently in surgery as we speak, to try and save his life. And return to some semblance of the man he once was.’
The 50-year-old mother-of-one (pictured) said she was wracked with guilt for not being able to save Huber, despite her heroic efforts, and asked his family for forgiveness
The veteran, who served as a US Marshal after leaving the military, said she saw Huber’s girlfriend Hannah Gittings running towards the gruesome scene, screaming for help.
‘As he was being taken into the truck his girlfriend Hannah was coming down the street screaming ‘Oh my god, that’s my boyfriend, please let me see him,’ Badoni said. ‘It was terrible to see this gentleman pretty much dead and to see her frantic and trying to get to see her boyfriend. It’s a scene I’ll never forget’
Badoni said she attended the protest on Tuesday because she disagreed with the Kenosha officer’s actions.
‘I was just interested in a peaceful protest,’ she said. ‘I was very against Jacob Blake getting shot seven times, I thought that was very excessive.
‘I wouldn’t want to be in a police officer’s shoes, with what they were dealing with at that time: he wasn’t listening to commands, there was a knife in the car. But for him to be shot that many times it seems kind of crazy and very excessive.’
The former servicewoman said she learned her CPR skills in a police science degree and in first responder training with the Red Cross and with the Daytona police.
‘I knew what to do, so all I could think of was ‘God, I need to help this gentleman. If I can somehow save him, if I can somehow make him breathe, then medical professionals can take it from there’.
‘I didn’t care if I got shot, all I wanted to do was help this gentleman.
‘I don’t care if it was a white person or a black person on the ground, I don’t care who it is,’ she added. ‘I would have run through that gunfire and helped whoever was on the ground, and I would do it again.
‘In that situation you don’t think about yourself, all you think about is trying to help somebody else. That’s how I was raised, to do whatever you can for another person.’