The good Samaritan nearly killed last week trying to rescue a stranger who was being beaten and robbed in a St. Paul light-rail station is dealing with more than just the trauma of being shot in the chest.

“He’s just really emotional about the situation now,” the victim’s fiancee said Thursday. She asked that her name not be published and that her fiance be identified only by his first name, Louis, out of concern for their safety. “He’s really a good guy, and he tried to help somebody, and he runs into an unfortunate situation like this.”

Louis, 30, was critically wounded in front of his fiancee and their 11-year-old daughter when he confronted a group of young males attacking a vulnerable man on a light-rail platform at University and Western avenues Sept. 2.

On Thursday, the Ramsey County attorney’s office alleged that Treheem Smith, 18, of St. Paul shot Louis as Louis tried to intervene in the attack. Smith was charged with second-degree attempted murder in a criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court. He’s being held in the Ramsey County jail in lieu of $200,000 bail.

A LOT OF PAIN, DAMAGE

Louis is in the intensive care unit at Regions Hospital and is in a lot of pain, his fiancee said.

Surgeons had to remove Louis’ spleen and part of his pancreas, stomach and colon. The surgeons also operated on lacerations to Louis’ liver and a large vein in his heart, according to a criminal complaint.

Louis has “a lot of damage in the stomach area that’s going to take a long time to heal,” his fiancee said. “He just about died. His life is not guaranteed (if complications arise). … It’s really hard to watch him have to go through this and be so vulnerable right now, as strong as he is.”

Louis’ family has not been told when he will be released from the hospital, but doctors have said he will be out of work for more than a year. A friend of Louis’ started a fund to help the family with medical expenses not covered by insurance and lost wages from his job doing prep work in the kitchen of a private golf course, his fiancee said. The fund, with a goal of $10,000, had $520 in contributions as of late Thursday afternoon.

But the fiancee said Louis felt compelled to act when he saw a vulnerable person in danger.

Louis was in a vehicle with his fiancee, their 11-year-old and a friend from work about 10 p.m. when they saw a vulnerable man being assaulted by several males, according to police, a criminal complaint and a news release from the Ramsey County attorney’s office.

According to the criminal complaint:

Louis told his fiancee, who was driving, to stop the car when they saw the assault. She honked her horn and yelled that she was calling police. Then Louis got out of the car and ran toward the platform, followed by Louis’ friend. The woman told police she heard three gunshots and then all the assailants ran.

The 11-year-old told police that she also heard three gunshots, felt something brush past her hair and showed officers a bullet fragment she had found in the floor of the car.

Louis ran back to the car and said, “I got hit. It burns. It stings,” according to the criminal complaint.

THREE SHOTS

The complaint said the friend who had been with Louis told police he saw four younger males assaulting a man at the train stop. He heard three shots and heard Louis say he had been shot.

A transit station video showed an older man on the platform with a backpack and four other males talking. One of the males rode a bike by the older man, kicked him in the head and then took the backpack, according to the complaint. Another male punched the older man, knocking him to the ground, the complaint said. The video then showed Louis approaching the males in the group, who then ran away, and then Louis was shot, according to the complaint.

An officer with the St. Paul police gangs unit viewed the video and said the male who punched the older man with the backpack was a 15-year-old identified in the complaint as QH, the complaint said. The male who kicked the older man is a 14-year-old identified as LH, according to the complaint.

After his arrest, LH told police that someone asked the man with the backpack for a drink of his beer, and the man told the group to leave him alone and called them a racially derogatory name, according to the complaint. LH said the group hit the man and threw his things, and LH said that he “smacked the man a couple of times” but that he was just “playing around,” the complaint said. LH denied knowing anything about shots being fired or who the others were who assaulted the man, the complaint said.

QH told police that the man with the backpack touched his sister’s backside, so he smacked the man on the chin, the complaint said. He also initially denied knowing the others who assaulted the man or who shot the gun, the complaint said.

But after he was shown surveillance photos, QH told police he saw another man approach and ask why they were fighting, and say that if they wanted to fight someone, they could fight him, the complaint said. QH said he heard Smith reply that he doesn’t fight, and then he saw Smith fire a gun three times, the complaint said. QH said he didn’t see who Smith fired at as everyone fled, the complaint said.

PUNCHED IN FACE, HE FIRED, HE SAYS

After his arrest, Smith told police he had been going to catch the light rail at Western and University avenues when he saw a group of people fighting a drunken man who was using racial epithets, the complaint said.

Smith said he heard a car approach, a horn honking and yelling. Then he saw the people on the platform run, the complaint said.

Smith said that two other males approached the train platform and that one of the men walked by Smith and punched him in the face, according to the complaint. Smith said he pulled out a revolver and fired it twice, but at another man, not at the man who punched him, the complaint said.

Smith said he ran to his East Side home and threw the gun in Lake Phalen after he discovered the man he shot was in critical condition, the complaint said.

Smith is also facing charges of possession of a pistol without a permit in an Aug. 2 arrest. In September 2014, when he was 17, he was convicted of a charge of possessing a firearm by a minor.

His lawyer, John Chitwood, said Thursday, “My client looks forward to his day in court.”

When he could talk to police, Louis told officers he saw five or six males beating up a helpless man on the light-rail platform, the complaint said. When Louis ran over to help, the group fled except for two males, the complaint said.

Louis said he saw one male punch the other, and the one who was punched pulled out a gun and shot at Louis, the complaint said.

The complaint said the police also talked to the man with the backpack. He told police he was drunk and was trying to take public transportation home, the complaint said. The man said he thought he had been punched and kicked, but he did not recall shots being fired, the complaint said.

Two juveniles, ages 14 and 15, have pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated robbery in the incident, according to the Ramsey County attorney’s office.

Since Louis’ 11-year-old daughter witnessed what happened to her father, she is “a little fearful of society right now,” her mother said. “We are talking about a couple of juveniles (who were involved) who weren’t too much older than her.”

HOW TO HELP

Donations to the account the victim’s friend named Louie’s “Hero Fund” can be made at www.gofundme.com/8r3dx3xc.

Richard Chin can be reached at rchin@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5560. Follow him at twitter.com/RRChin. Mara H. Gottfried can be reached at mgottfried@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5262.