One-year-old's rescuers recall chaotic night of shooting; Chattanooga police officers honored

Chattanooga police officer Brandon Herring arrived at the scene of a triple shooting and homicide in College Hill Courts just moments after the shots rang out around 1 a.m. on Jan. 7.

A woman screamed from the upstairs window that her baby was shot.

Herring rushed inside the apartment and discovered Zoey Duncan, 1, wrapped in a blood-soaked white towel. Another woman, 20-year-old Talitha Bowman, was dead, shot twice, once in the heart. An 18-year-old man was shot in the chest and critically wounded. The baby's mother, Bianca Horton, also was hit.

She pleaded with Herring to get help for Zoey, who'd been shot in the back. The baby's breathing was raspy and her pulse was low. As Herring examined Zoey, she faded in and out of consciousness. He'd find out later that the bullet had collapsed her right lung.

"It was like tunnel vision," Herring said on Tuesday. "I honed in on the baby."

He asked for the ETA on an ambulance, but no one could give an exact time. That's when his boss, Sgt. Darrell Turner, made a bold decision. Take the baby in a patrol car, he said.

Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher, left, recognizes Zoey Duncan, second from right, and her mother, Bianca Horton, after presenting Life Saving Awards to Chattanooga police officers, from second left, Brandon Herring, Clayton Holmes and Sgt. Darrell Turner.

"I wasn't for sure on how many ambulances were going to get there," Turner recalled. "We were waiting on the ambulances and had multiple victims. So I made the decision to take her in a patrol car in order to get her as much help as possible."

Herring scooped Zoey up and jumped in the back seat of Officer Clayton Holmes' car. They headed to T.C. Thompson Children's Hospital at Erlanger.

"The only thing I knew to do was to keep her awake," Herring said.

By the time ambulances arrived on scene at College Hill Courts, Herring and Holmes had already handed Zoey over to Erlanger. She underwent emergency surgery and survived, paralyzed from the waist down.

On Tuesday, Herring, Holmes and Turner accepted an award from Chattanooga police for their actions that night. Fourteen other officers and eight community members also were honored at the annual awards ceremony.

Herring said Zoey is starting to respond to touch on her legs. She's attended physical therapy and the family has said they hope she'll walk again.

Zoey attended Tuesday's ceremony, held up by Horton on stage, in pink socks and no shoes.

Contact staff writer Shelly Bradbury at 423-757-6525 or sbradbury@timesfreepress.com with tips or story ideas.