DUBLIN, Ohio (WCMH) — The Fraternal Order of Police recognized a Chillicothe dispatcher Saturday morning who saved a Ross County deputy’s life in November.
At a hotel in Dublin, Chillicothe police dispatcher Taylor Matson was honored by the FOP for rendering first aid and saving Ross County sergeant Eric Kocheran quickly after he was shot.
On November 17, Sgt. Eric Kocheran was severely injured in a shootout with Nicholas Mitchell, a man who came to the Ross County Sheriff’s Office, pulled out a gun and opened fire and hitting Sgt. Kocheran in the chest. The bullet went through one of his lungs, nicked his heart, and lodged in his liver.
Body camera footage of the shooting can be seen below. The videos, which have been edited together for clarity and viewer discretion, are below.
The Chillicothe Police Department shares the building with the RCSO, and Matson was there when Mitchell opened fire on Kocheran. “Sgt. Kocheran was laying in the hallway,” says Matson. “I found out where his wounds were, got first aid to him, tried to keep him calm and waited until the police, sheriffs and medical personnel arrived.”
Matson later learned that the shooter was only six feet away from her with Mitchell injured but still armed. She says it didn’t matter to her where he was. “I’ve been raised around helping others my whole life and I just ran out the door and tended aid to him. I didn’t even think about it when it was going on,” says Matson.
Kocheran and Matson have talked since the shooting with his doctors saying he wouldn’t be alive without Matson administering first aid quickly. NBC4 spoke with Kocheran, who said he is doing very well in his recovery.
For her life-saving acts, Matson was honored.
“Officers do good things every day. They help people every day, and we certainly don’t do a good enough job recognizing them for that,” says Bruce Szilagyi, the Chairman of the Board for the Fraternal Order of Police Ohio Labor Council.
Matson says she never believed she would be put in a situation like that so she is excited to be recognized. “I’m the one who sends help, not usually the one running out the door rendering the aid,” she said. “So it’s definitely different being in that situation, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.”
