Lawrence Roth Jr. was kneeling over the injured motorcycle rider.
“Just stay conscious,” he said.
Ambulance’s sirens could be heard in the distance.
“Here they come,” he continued. “You hear the ambulance? You ain’t finna die today. You good. You gonna live. It’s your birthday. You ain’t finna die today.”
Less than 15 minutes earlier, Roth had been in the backyard of his corner house, digging through his car trunk. He heard screeching brakes, then a violent crash.
It was about a month ago, Aug. 20, an otherwise ordinary Wednesday.
Roth saw the motorcyclist sprawled at North 27th Street and W. Medford Avenue in Milwaukee’s Metcalfe Park neighborhood.
Roth approached the man — later identified as 29-year-old Gustavo Rojas — and his heart lurched. The motorcyclist was conscious, but his leg was severed from the collision.
Lawrence Roth Jr., poses for a portrait near 27th and Clarke Streets on Sept. 16, 2025, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Roth made a makeshift tourniquet out of jumper cables when rendering aid to a motorcyclist involved in a traffic accident on Aug. 20. -Angelica Edwards/ The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
What has set this accident apart from so many others that happen across the metro area was what happened in the next few minutes. In the face of chaos, neighbors stepped up. They acted quickly and efficiently, turning a potential tragedy into a story of quiet heroism.
According to Milwaukee County’s Motor Vehicle Collision (MVC) Dashboard, Rojas’ accident was one of more than 10,000 recorded in Milwaukee City since the start of 2025 – 186 of which were reported as “suspected serious injury.”
Motorcyclists are particularly vulnerable. Earlier this year, Gov. Tony Evers proclaimed May as Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month, citing nearly 2,000 motorcycle crashes per year between 2019 and 2022, which resulted in approximately 400 deaths throughout the state. Ninety-six crashes in the city of Milwaukee have involved motorcycles this year as of Sept. 16.
Two neighbors working as an impromptu trauma team
“When I approached him, I noticed that he didn’t have a leg. Like, his leg was gone,” Roth said. “I looked to my immediate right, and I could see his shoe and the lower half of his leg over there.”
A crowd gathered at the scene. Some tried wrapping Rojas’ bleeding leg with a shirt; others shouted out advice. Roth knew they needed to do more.
Returning from his house with old jumper cables and a stick, Roth fashioned a makeshift tourniquet. He quickly tied the cables around Rojas’ leg above the knee and pulled tight.
“Oh my God,” Rojas cried out. “Why did she blow through the stop sign? It’s my birthday.”
Rojas’ eyes were starting to close. To keep him awake, Roth tried to engage in conversation: “You said it was your birthday? What’s your name? It’s your birthday? How old is you turning today?”
That’s when Richard Clark appeared.
Richard Clark, of Metcalfe Park, poses for a portrait near 27th and Clarke Streets on Sept. 16, 2025, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Clark, a former medic in the Vietnam War, joined community members in rendering aid to a motorcyclist involved in a traffic accident last month. -Angelica Edwards/ The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Sitting on his front porch a block away, Clark had heard the crash and came to the scene after hearing all the screaming. A Vietnam veteran who’d served as a combat medic during two tours overseas, Clark shared his background and offered to help.
“’Well, if that’s the case, you take over,’” Clark recalled Roth saying.
Clark’s training kicked in, and he made the necessary adjustments to the tourniquet: lower it closer to the wound, then alternate between loosening and tightening the tourniquet to keep enough blood flowing.
“If I got to you, you were alive,” Clark said of his days as a medic. “Nobody ever died on me, and I had some doozies.”
Together, Roth and Clark worked the scene like an impromptu trauma team – keeping pressure, keeping Rojas talking, keeping him alive until the medics arrived.
Two days later, police arrested 19-year-old Chamari Williams, the alleged driver behind the wheel of a stolen car that struck Rojas, after which she fled on foot. Williams now faces two charges: for a hit and run involving great bodily harm and for knowingly operating a vehicle without a valid license causing great bodily harm.
Rojas, who lost his leg on his 29th birthday, faces a long recovery after spending over two weeks in the hospital. Adjusting to life post-accident, he expects to be fitted for a prosthetic within the next seven months. Yet he speaks with gratitude.
“They told me I’m lucky to be alive,” Rojas said. “I’m going to overcome this and keep going forward.”
In a neighborhood often overshadowed by hardship, Roth and Clarke had become unlikely first responders – one with nothing more than a stick and jumper cables, the other with lessons learned a half century ago in Vietnam.
Cars drive through North 27th street on Sept. 16, 2025, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Metcalfe Park residents rendered aid to a motorcyclist involved in a traffic accident in the area on Aug. 20.
April Quevedo covers Metcalfe Park for the Journal Sentinel’s Neighborhood Dispatch. Reach her at aquevedo@gannett.com. As part of the newsroom, all April’s work and coverage decisions are overseen solely by Journal Sentinel editors.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Fast response by Metcalfe Park residents saved a motorcyclist