Jeff Gadd was in uniform on the morning of July 16, riding his Hamilton County Sheriff's Office motorcycle to escort a funeral procession on Ashland Terrace, when radio traffic about an active shooter began to trickle in.
The info came through: Active shooter on the riverfront.
Gadd, already blocking traffic for the funeral procession, held the intersection at Hixson Pike open so the other sheriff's deputies and police officers who were escorting the funeral could get through, and fast.
Then he sped down Amnicola Highway after them. Gadd pulled his motorcycle to a stop on the side of the highway, just outside the green fence that loops around the U.S. Naval and Marine Reserve Center.
He heard a volley of shots as he pulled up.
"I knew it wasn't ours, and I knew it was an assault rifle," he said.
He yanked off his helmet - a big, white target - and threw it aside. Without his patrol car, he had only his sidearm. With a handful of other officers, Gadd tried to circle around the back of the complex and come at the shooter through the woods, but was stopped both by the fence and the thick vegetation.
The officers regrouped and headed to the main entrance to the complex. As they entered, Gadd heard a gun battle - the deep, distinct rounds of an assault rifle against the familiar ring of law enforcement's weaponry.
On the radio, someone shouted, "Officer down! Officer down!"
And that's when Gadd saw Chattanooga police Officer Dennis Pedigo's boots.
He'd recognize those boots anywhere. He raised his gaze and found Pedigo's face, twisted with pain. Two officers held Pedigo up, and he said, "I've been shot."
"At that point, it gets kind of blurry," Gadd said.
Tunnel vision kicked in as Gadd grabbed Pedigo and hoisted him on his hip. He and other officers quickly got Pedigo out of the complex and cut across the grass to Amnicola Highway. An ambulance was pulling up just as they reached the pavement.
Someone sliced Pedigo's boot off, and he was loaded into the ambulance and whisked away.
Gadd went back to the complex.
Although one suspect was down, the officers believed there were one or two more shooters inside, perhaps barricaded in a room. So Gadd and others began to clear the building, room by room by room.
"Until we got to that last door, we all expected to find someone else in there," he said.
But there were no more shooters. Four Marines were dead and a Navy sailor mortally wounded, but the threat was over.
Gadd took a moment and called his wife, told her he was safe.
Today, Gadd, who has been a law enforcement officer for 13 years, will be recognized for his actions with an award from the Chattanooga Optimist Club. He said he's honored to accept it but hopes he can use the ceremony to recognize all law enforcement personnel who responded that day, not just him.
"I did my job," he said.
At least eight other officers helped get Pedigo to safety during the attack. Chattanooga police investigator Jennifer McCoy and officer Sean O'Brien rushed through gunfire to pull Pedigo out of the line of fire immediately after he was hit. They then passed Pedigo to Gadd and others.
Eight police officers - McCoy, O'Brien, Lucas Timmons, Ty Cooper, Steve Wiertel, Barry Vrandeburg, Randall Wood and Curtis Morris - will be honored for the rescue at the police department's annual awards ceremony on May 26.
Contact staff writer Shelly Bradbury at 423-757-6525 or sbradbury@timesfreepress.com with tips or story ideas. Follow @ShellyBradbury.