Meeka Outlaw couldn’t fight back her tears as she received a standing ovation in a packed City Council room Thursday morning.
She was being honored for her act of heroism when she saved the life of a three-year-old boy who was shot in the cheek.
Outlaw doesn’t consider herself a hero, but that’s exactly how the city of Philadelphia views her after her actions.
Last Sunday, Outlaw saw 23-year-old Laylaah Muhammad carrying her three-year-old son who was suffering from a gunshot wound to the cheek.
Get top local stories in Philly delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Philadelphia's News Headlines newsletter.
At the time, Outlaw was taking groceries out of her car when she spotted Muhammad in a panic as she held her injured son along the 1500 block of Taney Street.
Outlaw called 911 and drove Muhammad and her son to a firehouse on Grays Ferry Avenue where medics took the boy to the hospital, and he is now in stable condition.
As she stood in front of the City Council her tears weren’t just tears of gratitude for the honor being bestowed upon her, but also tears of relief that the child she helped was stable and tears of grief for the child she lost.
Local
Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
“When I saw her holding that baby, I saw myself 19 years ago when I lost my daughter,” Outlaw shared.
She had lost her own child in a traffic accident and said when she saw Muhammad with her hurt child, she made it her goal to protect that woman from the pain she knows too well.
“There’s a club mothers join when they lose a child, and that’s a club that I just didn’t want for that girl,” she said.
Outlaw said she was just doing what her mother taught her to do and the true heroes are the firemen.
“The act that she did is what other citizens here in the city of Philadelphia should do,” councilmember Kenyatta Johnson said. “If you’re seeing something taking place inside the neighborhood as opposed to filming it you should step up.”
Outlaw is a schoolteacher and community leader and as she returned to her teaching job she said the lesson she would share with her students is to lead with empathy.
While investigators still aren't aware who was responsible for the shooting of the three-year-old, Muhammad is now facing charges after she allegedly lied to police about the incident.
