He helped at least 10 people fleeing the Las Vegas shooting. His heroism was honored with Tacoma police's highest award

Aaron McNeely had planned to go to the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas last October to celebrate his wife's birthday, but his friends had bailed, so they sold their tickets.

The Tacoma police officer, wife Riana and friends didn't cancel their whole trip to Sin City, but they did split up and call it an early night on Oct. 1.

Then McNeely heard muffled booms in the distance and his wife noticed a lot of sirens. She pulled up the Las Vegas police scanner on a smartphone app to hear the initial response to the largest mass shooting in modern American history.

McNeely told Riana to stay in their room at the MGM Grand. He said he'd be back and took off running.

"It was chaos," he said in an interview last week. "It kind of felt like a fish swimming upstream: one person running the opposite way of thousands of people."

The 25-year-old ended up treating at least 10 of the more than 850 people wounded in the shooting near the Mandalay Bay Resort, in which 58 people died.

For his actions, McNeely was awarded the Medal of Valor, the Tacoma Police Department's highest award, on July 2.

"It's a huge honor," he said. "I didn't expect it."

The night of the shooting McNeely first stopped to help a woman who had been shot twice in the back. He plugged her wounds with his shirt and showed her friends how to apply pressure to stanch the bleeding.

He ran 200 yards to an ambulance and, with the paramedics' permission, moved the ambulance to the woman and helped load her inside.

McNeely then manned a checkpoint nearest the hotel to make sure the shooter did not escape with people leaving the scene. At one point, according to the Tacoma Police Department's account, the officer helped the local SWAT team as it responded.

Two Las Vegas police officers he was with were green — one had been on the force for a couple months, the other was on his first day of uniformed training. Still, as he recounted the story in last week's interview, he complimented their professionalism multiple times.

It the end, it took McNeely about three hours to reunite with his wife, who stayed safely away from the shooting. None of his friends was hurt, either.

"I don't feel special," McNeely said. "I don't want to be called 'special.' I don't feel as if I'm a hero. I'm Aaron."

Earlier this year, McNeely received the Officer of the Year award from the Washington Council of Police and Sheriffs.

The Kansas City, Missouri, native and former Army Ranger came to the Pacific Northwest when he was stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. His last day in the military nearly four years ago was his first day with Tacoma police.

The talkative officer said he wanted to become a first responder because of an innate desire to help people. Given that desire to help, McNeely didn't take much time off after the tragedy that unfolded during his vacation.

"Two days later, he was back at work here, catching bad guys," Tacoma police spokeswoman Loretta Cool said.

The department's medal of valor is the highest recognition for a commissioned officer.

To qualify, an officer must "distinguish themselves with extraordinary acts of bravery or heroism above and beyond that is normally expected in the line of duty. Members must have displayed extreme courage by placing their own safety in immediate peril in an effort to provide protection or preservation of life."

The medal was not awarded last year, and was given to five officers who tried to rescue Officer Reginald "Jake" Gutierrez when he was fatally ambushed by a gunman Nov. 30, 2016.

This story was originally published July 9, 2018 at 1:45 PM with the headline "He helped at least 10 people fleeing the Las Vegas shooting. His heroism was honored with Tacoma police's highest award."