OMAHA, Neb. -- A Good Samaritan who helped injured Omaha police Officer Paul Latschar said he’s relieved to hear the officer’s condition has improved.

Latschar was shot after he and his gang unit partner, Jerry Swanson, pulled over a car near 42nd Street and Camden Avenue Wednesday night.

Latscher nearly bled to death, doctors said, but is recovering at an Omaha hospital.

LaDon Stennis was riding a bike along Camden Avenue, found Latschar moments after he was shot and held the officer in his arms until help came.

“I started hearing the sounds of the guns,” Stennis said. “I saw the officer running from it. I looked to the left, and there was a guy standing in the yard and I looked at the officer. He was down.”

Stennis said he called across the street to ask the officer if he was OK. The officer told him he wasn’t.

“I said, ‘I’m trying to get to you,’ and they were still shooting at him,” Stennis said.

Stennis said he got off the bike and walked up to Latschar and his pants were wet with blood.

“He was shot in the lower abdomen. That’s the first wound I saw. Then I saw the upper shot,” Stennis said.

“I was leaning down, trying to hold his head up,” he said. “I knew if I could keep his head up and keep him talking, he would make it. The first thing that came to my mind was to keep him talking.”

Stennis said he saw police cruisers approaching the scene and he was able to flag one down and tell the officers where their injured colleague was. The paramedics arrived shortly afterward.

Stennis said he never gave a second thought to stopping to help.

“I could have easily turned around and avoided it. I could have went the other way. I could’ve, but something made me stop,” he said. “I couldn't leave a guy laying over there in the gutter. That would really bother me.”

He also said had he not been there at the right time, things might have turned out differently.

“I don’t think anyone in those houses saw the officer on the ground. It was a dark area. I don’t think he would have made it,” he said. “I wanted to make sure he was OK, and I wanted to secure him so they wouldn’t come over and kill him.”

Stennis works for Omaha’s Parks and Recreation Department. He said he hopes he’ll be able to meet Latschar again soon under much better circumstances.

“(He was) someone’s child or father, you know? He just wasn’t a police officer. He could have been anyone. I just wanted to help him because he needed help and he was doing his job,” Stennis said. “I think I was meant to be there. I was right there when it happened, and I’m glad I was there.”