James Bridger Jr. was driving out of his neighborhood Monday morning when he saw something that didn’t make any sense to him: a police officer slumping to the ground.
The 43-year-old had just pulled off Northeast 159th Street when he saw Earlene “Sam” Anderson holding Vancouver police Officer Dustin Goudschaal on the asphalt, with blood surrounding them. He said he parked behind Anderson’s silver Volkswagen Jetta and darted over to them.
Anderson bandaged Officer Dustin Goudschaal’s neck as she told Bridger that a man in a black truck had fired on the Vancouver officer.
After helping apply pressure to the bandage, he reached across Goudschaal’s chest, grabbed his radio, and yelled: “Code 33!” He said that an officer was shot and that they needed help immediately. Goudschaal couldn’t talk.
“We were just looking at each other,” he said. “I can’t believe there’s a human being alive that would … open fire on somebody they don’t know.” Officers arrived first, all of them trying to piece together what had happened just minutes prior. Paramedics relieved Bridger and Anderson shortly afterward.
“It was all a blur,” Bridger said. “An officer told me this morning, that (radio) call might have saved his life.”
Bridger was heading to his sister’s house in his pickup to help her with recycling when he happened upon the shooting scene. He said he normally doesn’t turn onto 34th Street to get out of his neighborhood, but he had to take a different route because he had a trailer attached.
Bridger said Anderson was driving the opposite direction on the road when the shooting happened in front of her. She stopped her car and laid down, then got out to help, he said. By the time he arrived, the suspect vehicle, a black Ram truck, was already out of sight.
Goudschaal was loaded into an ambulance and sent to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center. Bridger stayed on scene as investigators interviewed him.
Bridger visited Goudschaal in the hospital for a few minutes Tuesday. The officer, despite having a long road to recovery in front of him, appeared to be in good spirits.
“He said, ‘Thank you. It’s because of you I’m here,’ ” Bridger said.
Goudschaal told him he’d like to give him a hug, but it would bloody him.
“I told him, maybe later,” Bridger said.
The pair joked about going on a ride-along together, with Bridger on the back of Goudschaal’s motorcycle. Bridger said he plans to visit Goudschaal again soon and teach him to play cribbage.
For 20 years, Bridger has worked as a longshoreman. Before that, he was a reserve officer with the Battle Ground Police Department for about one and a half years, and a volunteer with Fire District 3. Grabbing the officer’s radio was second nature, he said, even though his training was years ago.
A Vancouver police sergeant visited the downtown longshore union hall to personally thank Bridger for his quick thinking, Bridger said. He sounded just like a cop over the radio, the sergeant told him.
It wasn’t just Bridger and Anderson who saved Goudschaal’s life, though. Goudschaal pulled out the bandage himself and handed it to Anderson, Bridger said.
“He was a big part of his own saving,” he said.
