Michigan State player helps save teenager's life

Brian Calloway | USA TODAY Sports

EAST LANSING, Mich. — For some reason, Micajah Reynolds decided not to spend the night at a friend's house last week.

The Michigan State senior defensive tackle also decided not to take his typical path home.

Those two things wound up helping to save the life of a Lansing teenager last week.

Reynolds was flagged down by a teenager in the early hours on July 31 while driving home on East Saginaw Street in Lansing. The teen had been shot multiple times, including in the head, in what police think was part of a robbery.

"Nobody else was around and he was bleeding pretty badly," Reynolds said. "I whipped my car around in the middle of the street and jumped out and ran over to him and helped him out. I put pressure on his wounds and stuff. He had been shot in the head. I've still got my shirt and all my clothes over at the house that are completely drenched in his blood and stuff. Thank God he made it."

Reynolds recalled the whole experience Monday during Michigan State's annual media day.

"I'm holding him, cradling him and putting pressure and telling him, 'Hey, everything is going to be OK, everything is going to be all right.' He's telling me, 'I'm dead,' and I said, 'You're not dead, you're sitting here talking to me. You're gonna be fine, just hang on, just keep fighting.' I felt like I was spotting someone on the bench and being like, 'Man, you can do it. Just relax and keep going. You got it,' and all that.' Thankfully he made it. I haven't really spoken to the family since I've been in camp and stuff. He was stable and everything the last time I checked."

The experience put things into perspective for Reynolds.

"I didn't sleep for a couple days just because it made me consider life is delicate," Reynolds said. "Life is so delicate. You don't think about things like that happening until it's happened. Just thinking, I was like, 'What if my son would've been in that situation? Would somebody else have stopped?' Thankfully he made it and everything, but it makes you consider and be thankful and so grateful for everything that you're given.

"I'm truly blessed to be here and in this situation that I'm in right now playing college football at the highest level. There's so many people that I know who didn't make it out of where they were. I think I owe it to everybody that helped me get here to do my best and go as hard as I can. This stuff isn't something that I get back. Life isn't something that you get back. My goal in this camp has been to go as hard as I can. Even the first couple practices, I've never been so tired and so sore after practice. I think it's just because I've been trying to go hard. I can feel my body breaking down just so it can be built back up and be stronger for the games."

Brian Calloway writes for the Lansing State Journal, a Gannett affiliate.