At 1:36 p.m. on April 29, 2024, the call came into Engine 15 as a routine medical emergency. Within moments, the dispatch notes updated. Gunshot wound. Two officers down. When Captain Nathan Jones, Engineer Justin Barringer, and Firefighters William Costello and Jonathan Moore climbed into the rig, they didn’t know they were heading into one of the darkest days in Charlotte’s history.
The U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force had been ambushed serving a warrant. Four officers were dead or dying. And the shooter was still firing.
When Engine 15 arrived, the primary route was blocked. Police vehicles choked the streets, making it impossible to use the truck as a rolling shield. Battalion Chief Mike Clumpner gave the order: they were going in on foot. Adorned in PPE and carrying trauma packs, the crew moved through front yards, using houses as cover as the gunfire resumed.
"It felt like all hell broke loose again," Costello says. "We knew we were heading into something that wasn't just dangerous—it was lethal."
They reached the house next door and found officers dragging a wounded deputy across the grass. The crew took him, working inside a blacked-out police cruiser as bullets broke the sound barrier, whizzing past their heads. When they realized the cruiser had no keys, they moved him to another vehicle and sent him toward the command post.
But they weren’t done. Tasked with evacuating a second downed officer from a heavily armored BearCat, Costello and Moore jumped into the back of an ambulance. Stripping off their tactical gear, they applied a tourniquet and performed CPR all the way to a locked-down, chaotic hospital. Once the officer was in the hands of the medical staff, Engine 15 climbed back into their rig and drove straight back to the hot zone.
"You always wonder what you would do in a situation like that," Jones says. "Now we know."
For their actions, all four men received the Medal of Valor, the Charlotte Fire Department’s highest award for bravery. But the crew of the Shamrock Express doesn't dwell on the accolades. When the after-action reports and formalities finally slowed down, they only wanted one thing. Time to talk amongst themselves, and to ride the big red truck like they always do.