ANTIGO, Wis. (WSAU) -- The community of Antigo has two heroes that are not police, and have kept a low profile since the shooting incident at prom last Saturday night.
Antigo Police Chief Eric Roller declined to identify them, but many people in school and around town already know who they are. It's the young couple that was walking out of the prom Saturday night right behind the couple that was shot.
Chief Roller says the injured couple's friends were the first people to jump in and help. "Yeah, they were right there. They were able to apply pressure to the wounds and obviously, supply comfort to their friends, and then also to seek medical help for those two friends." He said they made the right decisions under pressure.
Roller says they quickly used a necktie as a tourniquet to slow down the bleeding. "From what I had heard, they had been able to tie the necktie to apply that pressure."
Chief Roller says while the young man was applying pressure to his friend's wound, his date was calling 911 to get more help.
He's certain that once the situation was over, this young couple helping their friends had to deal with the emotions of what just happened. "I would imagine just going through that experience has got to be very traumatic. They'll have a lot of different emotions that they're going to be experiencing, and probably just need more support from their family and friends to know that they're going to be okay."
18-year-old Jakob Wagner was the gunman, and he died a couple of hours after being shot multiple times by responding police officer Andy Hopfensperger. Roller confirms the weapon Wagner used was one rifle, and they are still not certain about his motive for shooting the couple.
About 200 prom couples and six chaperones were at Antigo High School. Nearly all of them were kept safe inside the school, and Wagner was never able to enter the building.