Mount Vernon health center CEO springs into action after 21-year-old shot, seeks help

Jaheim Vassel was shot down the road from where 14-year-old Zyaire Fernandez was shot and killed two weeks earlier.

News 12 Staff

Mar 25, 2023, 12:15 AM

Updated 570 days ago

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A 21-year-old shooting victim is alive, thanks to the quick work of staff at the Mount Vernon neighborhood health center.
Jaheim Vassel was shot down the road from where 14-year-old Zyaire Fernandez was shot and killed two weeks earlier.
Security footage outside the Mount Vernon neighborhood health center seems to show a silver car slowing down. That vehicle’s passenger and the driver both appear to start shooting at Vassel.
He runs out of the frame, and then just a few minutes later runs right into the health center.
The medical staff at the center already went home, except for CEO Judith Watson, who also happens to be a nurse.
She said it's been a while since she practiced, but she sprang into action, calmed Vassel down and applied a cold compress.
"I get downstairs and the gentleman is standing. He had been shot in the right thigh. He was able to tell me everything. He was chased, they fired multiple shots and he ran into the health center," she says. 
Paramedics arrived shortly after and took him to Jacobi Medical Center. 
"These folks shot multiple times, they intended to kill him and because we were here, he ran into the health center and we saved him and rescued him and stabilized him. It makes me so proud," says Watson.