In front of a crowd of nearly 14,000 in McKale Memorial Center, including the president of the United States and a host of officials, Daniel Hernandez denied the mantle of hero for his role in helping Gabrielle Giffords when she was shot.
Daniel Hernandez, a 20-year-old graduate of Sunnyside High School, has always had an innate desire to help others. He once considered medicine, but later discovered that he connected with people through public service. This became clearer when he met U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
“It wasn’t ‘til after I started interacting with her, I decided to go into public service,” Hernandez said. “When I came to the University of Arizona I was still a biology major, but quickly went into public service.”This combination of experiences led Hernandez to his moment of heroism. Hernandez worked on the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2007. Shortly after she ended up conceding in early June 2008, Giffords was holding an event, which he attended.
“I went to meet her and was absolutely amazed by the type of person she was,” Hernandez said. He then applied for an internship between June 9 and Nov. 1.
He described Giffords as friendly and brilliant. “She’s a policy-wonk.”
She will never discuss a policy without explaining it and why she is behind it, he said. This is one of the many ways she connects with the community. People involved in politics have a reputation for being cold and detached, Hernandez said, but she is the opposite.
In 2010 he campaigned for Rep. Steve Farley in District 28, which gave him another opportunity to work with Giffords as she pursued another term. After she won her seat in 2010, Hernandez applied to become her intern in her Tucson office and started Jan. 3, just five days before the shooting.
Mark Kimble, who works in Giffords’ congressional office, said in an e-mail that in Hernandez’s class of interns he stood out. “Daniel was one of four of the 13 interns who agreed to start early making up a transition team between the fall and spring semesters,” said Kimble. “That was evidence of his work ethic.”
This also meant that Hernandez didn’t have a chance to meet the congresswomen until Saturday morning.
On January 8 just after 10 a.m., Hernandez was helping with the “Congress on Your Corner” event, created as an opportunity for constituents to talk to Giffords directly, working the end of the line in front of a Safeway grocery story on 7100 N. Oracle Road.
“I was at the end of line checking people in 30 feet away and I heard gunshots.”
Hernandez said he did not see the shooter, but he reacted.
Rushing to Giffords, he found her on the ground, a visible gunshot to the head. He checked for other wounds and positioned her against his chest so she could breathe properly. Then he applied pressure to help stop the bleeding until ambulances arrived.
Six people were killed in the rampage, including U.S. District Judge John Roll, Gabe Zimmerman, one of Giffords’ aides, and a young girl; 13 others were wounded in the shooting.
Hernandez, a political science junior at the UA and director of the Arizona Students Association, said he has always enjoyed volunteering and getting involved in school programs and clubs.
Cathy Monroe, who teaches the nursing assistance program at Sunnyside, said she remembers Daniel well in class.
“He was a very internally motivated young man,” Monroe said. “He knew what was important and he went after what he needed to study.”
She said when competing for Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA), a national career and technical student organization, he trained himself for some of the areas that the competition would require.
During the competition, he did medical lab assisting, which involves learning how to draw blood, test urine and do finger sticks for diabetes and other patient care, Monroe said.
She said she believed he came out first in the state because he used his own resources and kept up with the medical current events. Nationally, he came in the top 20 with over 10,000 students competing. “He just learned on his own. He was very poised, never wild in classroom and very serious,” Monroe said.
“He was wonderful, the type of student a teacher would like to have a whole classroom full of.”
It was Hernandez’s nursing
assistance training that helped
save Giffords’ life.
At the university memorial held at McKale, Hernandez claimed that he was no hero.
“The reason I said that was because I believe the people who are the real heroes are those who have dedicated their lives to public service,” Hernandez said.
“Gabe Zimmerman, Giffords’ community outreach director, gave up his life and people like him deserve to be called the heroes.”
Hernandez flew to Washington D.C. to listen to Barack Obama’s State of the Union address.
Still a young man, his experience may color his views, but he is more passionate than ever about serving his community.
