A Police Officer Saved This Man's Life During Thursday's Dallas Shooting

Impact

When Thursday's peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas suddenly turned into a terrifying massacre, it was an unknown police officer who moved swiftly to save 46-year-old Dallas photographer Lynn Mays, Mays told Dallas Morning News' reporter Caleb Downs. 

"If I can find out who that police officer is, I would tell him thank you from the bottom of my heart," Mays says in a video the reporter posted to Twitter, his eyes red with tears.

Mays and others were standing on the street when the gunshots rang out, although they couldn't identify the location of the fire. "We start hearing more rapid fire and one police officer that was standing there pushed me out of the way because it was coming in our direction," Mays explained.

A colleague of the officer who saved Mays was shot, and Mays said he heard someone yell, "Officer down!" The identities of the officer who saved Mays and his downed colleague remain unknown. 

"I wish I also knew the officer that got shot because if it hadn't been for the other police officer, it could have been all of us," Mays said. "It could have been me lying right beside that man."

Thursday's events, which saw the death of five officers, marked the deadliest day in law enforcement history since 9/11. 

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