San Bernardino Medic Had 5 Seconds to Check if Each Massacre Victim Was Alive or Dead

(TNS) - As the water raining down from the overhead sprinklers pooled in rivers of blood and the smell of gunpowder hung in the air Wednesday, Ryan Starling remembered his training.

He got out his white tape.

More than two dozen victims lay on the floor at the Inland Regional Center, the 33-year-old medic recalled Tuesday.

Starling began moving from body to body to determine who might survive.

"In five seconds, you look at their skin color, their breathing and you feel their pulse," he said. "By all those things, you are determining if they are critical or deceased."

He marked the dead with white tape so he and other rescuers could focus their efforts on the living.

Just minutes earlier, Starling and his SWAT teammates had been training for just such a grim task — conducting active shooter drills less than 10 miles away.

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