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The fatal heroism of Pete Reed: Video shows US Marine vet's valiant last act

'He died doing what he was great at, what gave him life, and what he loved,' said Pete Reed's wife

BAKHMUT, UKRAINE: A US volunteer was seen in footage getting blown up by a Russian attack while trying to save a member of his own team in Ukraine. Pete Reed, an ex-marine, was evacuating civilians when a guided missile hit the ambulance he was traveling in. 

Reed's wife says that he lost his life while trying to protect his own team member. As Reed was helping to extract civilians from the besieged city of Bakhmut in the east of the country, the vehicle was struck by a missile. The city is suffering a heavy blow by the Russian forces who have surrounded all the sides with Ukrainian forces claiming that they are in a dire situation and have just a four-hour life expectancy.

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When did it happen?

The unfortunate incident reportedly took place on February 5, but the horror footage of the attack has now been made public. Reed and other aid workers were standing beside the van while being unaware of the fate that they were going to suffer a few seconds later. A missile which flew directly parallel to the ground, hit the Mercedes van, eventually destroying the vehicle and killing Reed. 

According to New York Times, a frame-by-frame analysis was done of the video which showed Reed getting blown out by a laser-guided missile fired by Russian troops. Besides, the van in which Reed was did not have any red cross mark which could have possibly indicated to the Russian forces what type of vehicle it was. 

What did a war crimes investigator say?

Marc Garlasco, a war crimes investigator, said that the weapon which was used to kill Reed, should have allowed the attacker to identify the nature of the target. He said, “you have an expectation that the firer is going to have the ability to differentiate between a medical worker and a combatant”.

In fact, colleagues of the slain medic, say the video and eyewitness accounts are proof that the group of international medics was deliberately targeted. "They were hunting us down," Erko Laidinen, a 35-year-old Estonian volunteer medic from frontlinemedics.org, whose camera recorded the missile and the explosion told ABC News.

Reed's wife's emotional post

Reed served two deployments as a Marine rifleman in Afghanistan and in 2017, he started the charity Global Response Medicine with his wife Alex Potter. He became famous in war zones in 2016, when he set up the only field hospital on the front lines of the Battle for Mosul, when the Iraqis tried to free it from the brutal torture of ISIS. 

“My husband Pete Reed was killed yesterday in Bakhmut, Ukraine,” Potter wrote at the time of his death, according to The Sun. “He was evacuating civilians and responding to those wounded when his ambulance was shelled," wrote Potter on social media on Friday. She further wrote, "He died doing what he was great at, what gave him life, and what he loved, and apparently by saving a team member with his own body.”

Soon after his 18th birthday, Reed joined Marine Corps in September 2007.