ONLY ON 4: Bartender describes helping shooting victims who stumbled into Belleville pub

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) – Employees and several customers at Danny’s Irish Pub on North Belt West helped two shooting victims who walked into the bar with gunshot wounds Monday night.

Clara Elmore, a bartender at Danny’s, said she was working behind the bar when a man with gunshot wounds walked into the pub around 9 p.m.

“He walked halfway down the bar and was screaming he’d been shot,” Elmore said.

Several customers tried to calm the man down and guided him to sit down. Moments later, a woman also came into the pub with gunshot wounds. Elmore said she tended to the woman’s injuries.

“She walked through that door and she was like, staggering. I noticed she had blood on her and we flipped over that chair and got her to sit down,” Elmore said.

Elmore said she called 911 while trying to put pressure on the woman’s gunshot wounds.

“In the heat of the moment, you don’t know what you’re going to do. You don’t really know what to do. You just go on reaction. You know, you try to stop the bleeding as quickly as you can,” Elmore said.

The Belleville Police Department investigated a shooting Monday night at an apartment on Freedom Drive, across the street from the pub.

Police say all three people involved in the shooting were brought to the hospital to be treated for gunshot injuries. Police said there is no threat to the public and the investigation remains active.

Elmore said it has been hard for her to sleep soundly since the shooting, but she does not regret stepping in to help.

“There’s still a lot that I’m still trying to comprehend, just because of the simple fact that it’s still, like, reeling through. And it probably will for a couple of days. But, you know, I did what I had to do,” Elmore said.

“You’re playing it over and over and over in your head. You close your eyes, and all you see is, you know, these people staring at you going, ‘please help me, please help me,” Elmore said.