On the first night out with his partner since the birth of their 3-week-old daughter, Camryn Crowder suddenly saw a "guy pointing a gun." That's when he dropped to the ground Sunday in Dayton, Ohio—but not before pushing his girlfriend to the ground first so he could shield her, reports the Dayton Daily News. "I felt that it would've been easier for me, honestly, to get shot than to have to come back and explain why [my child] doesn't have a mother," Crowder tells WBNS. Surveillance video shows Crowder hitting the ground with his partner of four years, Brittany Dungey, before easing her body beneath his. "I was certain a bullet was going to hit one of us," he tells Inside Edition. "I was hoping it was going to be me."
Crowder continued acting as a human shield as the pair slowly crawled across a sidewalk, seeking cover behind a concrete planter. According to CBS News, Dungey believes she would've died if he hadn't been there. "This is my hero!" she tells Inside Edition. "He's the best boyfriend in the world." But Crowder tells WBNS he is "definitely not" a hero. Had Dungey died, it "would've been hard for me to talk to my daughter about and explain why she wasn't here." The move "was really about me getting her out of the way, making sure that she was safe," he adds. "I had seen about four people that had gotten hit" and "thought for sure that it was gonna be my last day. ... I was just one of the lucky ones." (More Dayton shooting stories.)