8-year-old girl awarded medal for saving dad’s life in Placer County shooting rampage

An 8-year-old girl will be honored by the Placer County Sheriff’s Office on Monday for helping her father after he was shot by a bullet in a shooting rampage Jan. 15 that left a woman dead.

Brian Pierce of Newcastle was driving with his daughter, Isabell, on Rock Springs Road when the driver’s side window was shattered by a bullet. He was shot in the chest, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.

Pierce had been hit by a round allegedly fired by Stanley Stepanski III, 48, of Florence, Mont. Stepanski began a shooting spree that began around 7 p.m. when he was seen with a gun, firing off rounds starting in a Newcastle parking lot. Stepanski continued shooting as he traveled down Interstate 80, firing at businesses, vehicles and homes in seven different areas, authorities said.

Mary Toste, 93, who lived on Rock Springs Road was shot and killed at her door, law enforcement officials said.

After the Pierce’s vehicle was shot, Isabell told her dad he was bleeding. He grabbed a sweatband and pressed it to the wound on his chest. Isabell then “quickly used her hands to hold the sweatband in place over Brian’s wound,” the sheriff’s office said.

Isabell applied pressure to the gunshot wound as Pierce drove to a fire station in Loomis where he received medical attention.

Stepanski was later killed in a gunbattle with law enforcement after crashing into a center divide, officials said. A sheriff’s K-9 officer was also shot in the flank during the fight.

Isabell will be awarded the Citizen’s Medal of Merit by Placer County Sheriff Devon Bell in a ceremony Monday.

This story was originally published February 6, 2019 at 5:28 PM.