EXCELSIOR SPRINGS, Mo. — A police officer in one Clay County city is expected to be OK.

Police in Excelsior Springs report one of their own was shot on Saturday night, after a suspect, officers tried to arrest, opened fire. That suspect, Carl Carrel, 65, was killed in the crossfire, having been shot by police as he fired at them.

A spokesperson for the Clay County Sheriff’s Department said officers sought to arrest Carrel on outstanding warrants for his arrest.

On Monday, the Excelsior Springs Police Department elaborated, posting to social media that Carrel was sought in relation to previous cases involving assaults against a law enforcement officer.

Missouri court records show two charges against Carrel related to those cases, and another for failing to appear in court.

Excelsior Springs Police’s Facebook post said their officer is expected to recover, after having two surgeries already and awaiting a third procedure. A witness said that officer was shot in the shoulder and the wrist as he worked to arrest Carrel. Officers approached him in a grocery store parking lot, but he drove away, forcing officers to barricade him on Kearney Road near Crown Hill.

Ava Donegan, a student at Oak Park High School, recalled it as being a helter-skelter scene. Donegan said she and her boyfriend had gone to Excelsior Springs for a visit, when the incident broke out Saturday around 5 p.m.

“I had never heard gunshots so close up. I had never even — I had never even seen a cop draw his gun in general,” Donegan said.

Donegan said the officer who’d been shot asked her to help him apply a tourniquet, a tool with which she was already familiar. Her father, Devin, is a trauma nurse at University Health in Kansas City, Missouri. She said she carries a tourniquet in her car. The one she helped that officer used belonged to him.

“I was putting the tourniquet over his arm. He was telling me that it was numb. I could tell it was numb because his arm was completely limp. He was a pretty tall guy, and his hand was pretty wide so I was struggling over his limp hand,” Ava Donegan said.

“I think it was exceptional that she was able to get out and have the wherewithal to get out and help. Just to hear my daughter step up to the plate and help somebody in need, I was ecstatic,” Devin Donegan said.

FOX4 spoke briefly with Excelsior Springs Police Chief Greg Dull on Monday. He wouldn’t comment on any of Carrel’s previous cases, or what might be next in this investigation.

The Donegans are among the thousands of Americans who encourage everyone to carry lifesaving tools in their possession, such as AEDs, first aid kits and tourniquets.