CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — After a shooting left one person dead and two others injured in Chillicothe earlier this week, one of those victims is now partially paralyzed.
Jack Beggrow said he was leaving a gas station in Chillicothe just after midnight Wednesday when he passed by an alley in the area of East Water Street. The father of four said he came across a man with a gun who was beating a woman, so he stepped in trying to help her.
"If I didn't get out and distract him... he would've killed her next," Beggrow said.
He said the man with the gun shot him five times.
"Right when I looked up at him, when he was about to shoot me again, I was like, ‘stop man I got kids,’ and he just unloaded the gun into my back," Beggrow said.
Beggrow said the woman survived.
Beggrow was initially taken to Adena Regional Medical Center before being taken by LifeFlight to Grant Medical Center. The doctors told him he was paralyzed from the chest down.
That night, Jack’s mother, Jennifer Beggrow, got a call from Adena Regional Medical Center no parent ever wants to receive.
"She says you need to get here now because we don't know if he's going to make it," Jennifer said.
Jennifer said she and her husband waited several hours without an update from doctors or nurses on her son’s condition.
"Finally, the chaplain came over and spoke with us and he was a very nice guy, his name's Pete, and he was sitting in there and he goes, 'Jack was telling me,' and that stopped me… and I go, 'he's talking to you? he's talking to you?'"
Jennifer said in that moment, she found hope in knowing her son was alive.
The days that followed since the shooting have involved trying to process what Jack’s new normal will look like.
"I can't teach my kids how to play sports, I can't go to work ever again,” Jack said.
Though Jack said this is the worst thing to ever happen to him, he said he has no regrets about the decisions he made that night.
"I'd do it all over again, I'd save that girl again I'd do it every time cause everybody should think like that, everybody should be brave to save somebody," Jack said.
Despite the long road ahead, Jennifer said this has given her a greater appreciation for the little things anyone can take for granted.
"I'm glad that he was talking to us, and he can say, ‘Mom, Mom, come wash my face,’ little things like that,” Jennifer said.
Jack said this week has made him realize how many people are in his corner, and what really matters most of all.
"I'm alive. I can see my kids grow, even if its from a wheelchair, I'm here to be there with them now,” Jack said.
No information on a suspect has been released by the Chillicothe police as of Sunday.
Friends of the Beggrow family set up a GoFundMe to raise money for an electric wheelchair. For more information, click here.