Sonny Melton, a registered nurse from Big Sandy, was attending the Route 91 Harvest Festival with his wife, Dr. Heather Gulish Melton, who spoke with the radio station WYCB.
“At this point, I’m in complete disbelief and despair,” she told the station. “I don’t know what to say. Sonny was the most kind-hearted, loving man I have ever met. He saved my life and lost his.”
Describing how he died saving her life, she said, “He grabbed me and started running when I felt him get shot in the back. I want everyone to know what a kind-hearted, loving man he was, but at this point, I can barely breathe.”
Melton was a 2015 graduate of Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. Following his death, members of the school community spoke out about him.
“You know how when you met someone and you just know that they’re good and kind? That was Sonny,” Christy Davis, assistant professor of nursing, wrote in a Facebook post. “He just had a sweet, kind spirit about him.”
Melton will be remembered fondly by employees of the Henry County Medical Center, where his wife also worked.
“The thoughts and prayers of the entire HCMC family are with Sonny and Heather’s families,” Thomas Gee, CEO at Henry County Medical Center, wrote on the hospital’s website. “We ask that all staff, friends, and patients of the couple respect their privacy at this time and refrain from contacting the family and the HCMC Kelley Clinic if they do not have a reason to do so.”
According to The Jackson Sun, Gulish Melton also took to Facebook to write about her husband, saying that she “lost my true love and knight in shining armor. I appreciate the prayers but I just need some time.”
This article originally appeared on PEOPLE.