Mar 25, 2019 2 min read

An off-duty Washington firefighter who was enjoying a movie with his family rushed to help a teenager who was shot in the leg during a fight late Saturday at a cinema in North Franklin Township.

The 20-year veteran firefighter first took his family to safety after noticing the disturbance and then rushed back in with a police officer to apply a tourniquet to a gunshot wound to the victim’s leg, the city fire department stated in a Facebook post. The fireman was not identified.

“He was more than willing to run back in there not knowing what he was running into,” Washington fire Chief Gerald Coleman said Monday. “I am extremely proud of him.”

State police have released few details about the fight that broke out during a showing of “Us” in theater 1 at Regal Crown Center Stadium 14 at 1500 W. Chestnut St.

The victim was shot after a man from Greene County approached a group of boys to ask them to stay in their seats and be quiet, police said.

The man showed a gun, and there was a struggle for it when a bullet discharged, police said.

The fire department said its member administered “potentially life-saving care” to the teen where the fight ended in a hallway near the entrance to the theater.

Police said the man from Greene and the boy who was shot were both treated at a hospital and released.

Their names, as well as that of the firefighter, were being withheld pending the outcome of the investigation.

Trooper Forrest Allison said Monday there have been no arrests in the case, and investigators were still conducting interviews with those involved.

Coleman said he hopes that his firefighter will eventually be recognized for “stepping up and helping someone.”

“That’s just who we are,” Coleman said.

He said the fire department had recently completed training in mass casualties, which seem to “have become the norm.”

Regal has not returned messages seeking comment about the incident.