Officials examine blood-stained clothing and towels in front of Jim Haase's house in Oak Creek. Haase aided a man who was wounded in the nearby Sikh Temple shooting. Credit: Tom Daykin

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Jim Haase was just getting off the phone after making Sunday lunch plans with a friend when he heard a distinctive "pop pop pop" coming from the direction of the Sikh Temple about 300 yards north of his Oak Creek home. The 60-year-old Vietnam War veteran, retired Oak Creek firefighter and weapons instructor knew right away what it was.

Haase figured the first shots came from a semi-automatic weapon because the pops were coming "as fast as you can pull the trigger."

Then he heard six or seven larger bangs. Haase said it was the police returning fire.

"I didn't see the gun battle," he said, "but I could hear it because I'm right next door."

Minutes later, his yellow lab, Paris, started "going crazy," and right after that he heard a pounding on the door of his ranch house. When he opened it he saw a 60- or 70-year-old man with a gray beard standing in a blood-soaked white tunic.

"He couldn't speak English, but he was pointing at it," Haase said of the victim gesturing to the wound in his mid-section.

Haase, trained as a first responder, grabbed a towel and laid the man on his front lawn to apply pressure to stop the bleeding. He said the bullet - which made an entry hole no bigger than the diameter of a pen - appeared to go straight through the man, who remained conscious the whole time.

"I knew it wasn't his lungs because he didn't have blood in his mouth, and I knew it wasn't his heart because he was still alive," said Haase.

Haase said he called Oak Creek police to dispatch an ambulance. He said he continued to tend to the victim while they waited for help to arrive.

"I kept talking to him to make sure he was conscious, that he was alert and oriented through the whole thing," he said.

Haase said Franklin paramedics arrived minutes after he called, and he said believes the man apparently was one of the survivors of Sunday's shooting.

Haase didn't know the victim's name.

Haase didn't have lots of contact with the temple-goers next door, but he said his fire engine-red Ford truck parked outside his house must have been something of a beacon because he dropped by from time to time to help temple members deal with maintenance issues.

"We're neighbors," he said.