Bystander to Dying Soldier in Canada: 'You're a Good Man'

Immediately after Canadian soldier Nathan Cirillo was shot yesterday, a handful of bystanders ran to his aid. One was lawyer Barbara Winters, whose account is told at Macleans and in an interview with the CBC. As the team of strangers performed CPR and tried in vain to save the 24-year-old, Winters recounts that they kept talking to him. “You’re doing good, you’re doing good, buddy,” said a fellow soldier. “You’re breathing—keep breathing.”

Winters herself kept repeating a mantra to him: "You’re a good man, you’re a brave man,” she said. Cirillo's eyes were open, and Winters thinks he was still conscious. She reminded him that he had been standing guard at the National War Memorial. "Your family loves you," she said. "Your parents are so proud of you. Your military family loves you. All the people here, we’re working so hard for you. Everybody loves you.” He died soon after. ABC notes that Cirillo was a dog lover, making the scene of two dogs peeking out from the gate of his family home all the more sad. (Lawmakers were preparing to defend themselves with makeshift spears during the assault.)