ELMHURST — A school teacher rushed to help a man shot outside a Queens special education school Wednesday, police and the city's Education Department said.
The teacher, who gave his name only as James, sprinted out of P.S. 721, on 94th Street, after hearing shots and yelling about 11 a.m. He found a man on the street bleeding heavily from his leg.
Helped by a school nurse, James struggled to stem the bleeding before paramedics arrived.
"I just heard, 'Move back,' and then the gun shots," said James, 56, who was on his lunch breakwhen the shots rang out.
"Probably two or three gun shots."
James said he saw two people fleeing the scene as he ran to help the man, who police said was 41.
"I took my undershirt off and put pressure on him," he said, pointing to a blood-soaked white T-shirt lying in the street.
"He was yelling, expressing his agony."
Education spokeswoman Marge Feinberg confirmed the teacher and a nurse helped the victim. She didn't say what subject James taught.
"A staff member and nurse applied pressure to the victim to stop bleeding before EMS was at the scene," she said.
Paramedics later took the man, whose name was not released, to Elmhurst Hospital, an FDNY spokesman said.
An NYPD spokeswoman said the injuries were not life-threatening.
Police said nobody had been arrested as of early afternoon Wednesday.
Feinberg said students and staff at the school were unharmed and not involved in the shooting.
