LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Eternally grateful for the quick action of a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officer. An injured Chinatown waiter was able to meet the officer he says saved his life, after being shot multiple times in an attempted robbery last December.
“You look a lot better. How’re you doing sir?”
A warm embrace months in the making. ShangHai Taste waiter Chengyan Wang reuniting with metro police officer David Loupee, the man that helped save his life. Wang was critically injured last December at the restaurant after being shot 11 times in an attempted robbery. Officer Loupee was one of the first responding officers.
“There are bullet holes, glass broken everywhere. He has lost a lot of blood,” he said.
He and his partner had a meal Tuesday afternoon with Wang at the restaurant, going over that fateful night. Loupee says his instincts kicked in to stop the bleeding around the neck and kept encouraging Wang as he was loaded onto an ambulance to the hospital.
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“I could tell you were trying to fight for it. So glad you kept talking even though we had that language barrier,” he said.
“Be careful of soup inside,” Wang said.
But there was no barrier when it came to breaking bread with Wang teaching the officers how to eat a soup dumpling.
“It’s hot.”
The fact that a meal was being shared still hadn’t hit quite hit Officer Loupee.
“Mr. Wang was shot 11 times. Have you ever since seen someone live to tell the tale?” asked reporter Jeremy Chen.
“I’ve never seen anything similar to that in my career,” Officer Loupee said.
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Speaking in his native Mandarin, Wang is grateful for Officer Loupee’s act.
“I was bleeding so bad. If he hadn’t helped me stop the bleeding, I wouldn’t be sitting here today,” Wang said.
He says the officer’s quick thinking gave him a new lease on life.
“I sincerely thank him for giving me a second chance to live. Without him I wouldn’t have had the will to live,” Wang said.
The officer says he was just doing his job and it wasn’t just him that saved Wang’s life as it was a team effort.
“My partners, everyone else. The medical staff arrived right away. They did everything they could and the doctors and everyone that was working on him,” he said.
Ultimately, Officer Loupee credits Wang for being a fighter through his recovery.
“It’s very impressive and it was a very bleak outcome in the beginning, but he’s pulled through it,” he said.
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Wang is continuing to recover at home and there’s still no timetable yet on when he’s able to come back to work.
