Some two dozen fire, police and EMS units from across Lehigh and Northampton counties staged a silent parade Nov. 12, with red lights flashing, but no sirens, past the St. Luke’s University Hospital, Fountain Hill, in a show of support for Pennsylvania State Police Cpl. Seth Kelly who is recovering in that hospital after being seriously wounded in a shootout with a motorist stopped for a traffic violation in Plainfield Township Nov. 7.

The first responder units staged at the Masonic Temple, near Brighton Street, Fountain Hill, before the noontime hospital drive by along Ostrum Street, Fountain Hill.

Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley media outlets set up cameras across the street from the hospital trauma unit emergency room where Kelly was flown by a Medivac unit after an incident Nov. 7. Kelly was shot several times and received wounds to his neck, shoulder and thigh in the shooting following a traffic stop by another trooper along Route 33.

Trooper Ryan Seiple had stopped the vehicle for speeding and given the driver a citation when Seiple allegedly suspected the driver was under the influence. As the driver was pulling away, he stopped to ask how to pay his fine. Seiple saw evidence of drug paraphernalia and called Kelly for backup. A vicious fight ensued when the troopers attempted to arrest the suspect, of Monroe County. The suspect allegedly got away from troopers, retrieved a firearm from his vehicle and opened fire, hitting Kelly several times.

The suspect was arrested later at Easton Hospital where he went for treatment of wounds incurred in the gunfight.

Hospital authorities say Kelly’s actions in self-applying a tourniquet to his severely bleeding thigh probably saved his life.

A firefighter from Plainfield Township was in telephone contact with the trooper’s family as the line of first responders approached the hospital and said Kelly was at a vantage point to see the units pass by in their show of support.