Eight years after she was shot 12 times inside the Fifth Third Center, Whitney Austin stood at a Downtown Cincinnati blood drive this week telling anyone who would listen that the two tourniquets she applied to her own left arm that day are part of the reason she survived. The event, held at Elm Street Plaza, paired blood donation with hands-on lessons in recognizing and controlling life-threatening bleeding, the same skills Austin says saved her life on September 6, 2018.
According to FOX19 NOW, Austin received multiple blood transfusions after the shooting, and she has said that knowing how to control her own blood flow in the moment helped keep her alive. Austin, who leads the nonprofit Whitney/Strong, now spends much of her time turning that survival into public education, and the Downtown event was organized through a partnership between Whitney/Strong, UC Health, and the Hoxworth Blood Center under the banner of the Stronger Together Community Blood Drive.
What Happened at Fountain Square in 2018
The shooting unfolded on September 6, 2018, when 29-year-old Omar Enrique Santa-Perez entered the Fifth Third Center in downtown Cincinnati and fired indiscriminately into the building. The attack killed three people and injured two others, including Austin. The Hamilton County Coroner's Office identified the three men killed as 25-year-old financial consultant Pruthvi Raj Kandepi, 64-year-old construction superintendent Richard Newcomer, and 48-year-old contract manager Luis Felipe Calderón, according to 91.7 WVXU.
Santa-Perez carried a 9mm Taurus PT-809E handgun and roughly 250 rounds of ammunition into the building, firing 35 rounds before his weapon jammed, per the same station's reporting. Four responding Cincinnati police officers engaged him through the building's glass doors, ending the attack within about four and a half minutes. Then-Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said afterward that the officers' rapid response saved dozens of lives, with one investigator describing what could have unfolded as a bloodbath beyond imagination, as reported by the Morning Journal.
Three months before the attack, a federal magistrate judge had dismissed a $3.3 million lawsuit Santa-Perez filed against CNBC and TD Ameritrade, a filing the court characterized as “rambling, difficult to decipher and borders on delusional,” according to information compiled on Wikipedia. Investigators found no direct motive linking Santa-Perez to Fifth Third Bank.
From Survivor to Statewide Advocate
In the years since her recovery, Austin co-founded Whitney/Strong, structuring its board with both gun owners and non-gun owners from across the political spectrum in an effort to advance evidence-based gun ownership policies rather than partisan talking points, per the organization's own account on its website. The group's Save A Life initiative offers free community safety training that combines Stop the Bleed trauma care, safe firearm storage guidance, and QPR suicide-prevention instruction, with programming aimed at high-risk neighborhoods in Cincinnati, Louisville, and rural Kentucky.
That advocacy helped drive one of the more notable bipartisan achievements in recent Ohio legislative history. Governor Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 273, known as the Keep Them Safe Act, into law on June 18, after lobbying from Austin's organization, according to The Ohio Newsroom. The law grants civil immunity to licensed firearm dealers and law enforcement agencies that voluntarily offer temporary firearm storage for people experiencing a mental health crisis, an incentive meant to encourage gun shops to participate without fear of liability.
The bill passed unanimously, 32-0 in the Ohio Senate and 95-0 in the Ohio House, before reaching DeWine's desk, according to the Ohio Senate's own announcement of the vote. Its general provisions are scheduled to take effect on September 17.
Why Bleeding Control Training Matters
At Elm Street Plaza, organizers said the same Stop the Bleed techniques Austin credits with helping save her life can help save others during emergency events, and attendees at the blood drive were taught how to recognize and control life-threatening bleeding. UC Health operates the local Stop the Bleed program that provided that instruction.
The emphasis on hemorrhage control reflects a broader body of medical research. A study published in Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open found that hemorrhage is the leading cause of preventable death in traumatic injuries, and that prehospital tourniquet application by bystanders or first responders can reduce civilian mortality from major limb vascular injuries by up to sixfold, according to coverage in Trauma System News. A separate systematic review published in Military Medicine found that the national Stop the Bleed campaign, launched by the American College of Surgeons after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, had trained more than 1.4 million participants across 86,000 courses worldwide by early 2020, per a report archived on PMC.
Cincinnati Fire Department cadets also receive CPR and Stop the Bleed certifications as part of their training, Hoodline has previously reported. Fountain Square itself, just steps from the Fifth Third Center, has become a fixture of downtown civic life again in recent years, hosting events like the Fifth Third Center Stage dedicated by Fifth Third Bank and 3CDC.
