Unlikely angel at Brampton, Ontario, courthouse helped save officer’s life

Last Friday, Constable Mike Klarenbeek, 53, confronted a man who was trying to use the lawyer's entrance at Brampton's A. Grenville and William Davis Courthouse. The man shot the officer in the abdomen before officers returned fire and killed the unnamed gunman.

Klarenbeek was rushed to the hospital. On Sunday night, police told reporters that he had been moved out of intensive care and continues to recover in hospital.

Without a good Samaritan on Friday, however, the outcome could have been different.

"Mike specifically wanted to thank a nurse, who was at the courthouse that day," the officer’s wife, Lynn, said in a statement Saturday. "She was the first to tend to him, before the paramedics arrived. He says without her help, it may have had a different outcome."

As more of the story emerges today, news outlets are revealing Klarenbeek's unlikely angel — and she wasn't a nurse after all.

Linda Hunt, a 54-year-old woman with severe knee and back problems who was visiting the court to address possession of marijuana charges, was sitting beside the security station when the shooting occurred. She was the first to attend to the wounded officer — and one of the first to call 911.

"I think I heard seven shots. It was scary," Hunt told the Toronto Sun.

Hunt credits her St. John Ambulance training, which she took 28 years ago, in knowing what to do. Adrenaline helped her overcome her mobility issues and reach the wounded cop.

"Everything happened so fast and it seemed nobody knew what to do so I did what anybody would do," Hunt said in an interview.

"I saw the blood pumping out of him and I was pretty worried," she said. "I knew if I didn't do something immediately, he was going to bleed out."

Hunt told the Sun when she saw that Klarenbeek was bleeding badly from the abdominal area, she knew it was "a very dangerous place. Basically I applied pressure right to the wound."

She believes that encouragement from Klarenbeek's fellow officers also helped the officer survive.

"I heard them saying, 'Hang in there, KB. Hang in there, KB.' I thought it was his nickname," said Hunt. "I can tell he is well respected. I told them to keep talking to him. It really helped because he was definitely unconscious for a moment there."

Paralegal Marta McCulligh, who was there to represent Hunt, was also at the scene and witnessed Hunt's heroics.

"She was fearless," Marta said of Hunt. "She just dove in there without hesitation and really seemed to know what she was doing. I am in awe of her and what she did. She is a hero, no question about it."

Hunt, however, insists the real hero is Klarenbeek: he prevented the gunman from entering the courtroom.