That’s the day the 20-year U.S. Postal Service worker saved the life of a shooting victim, almost got shot himself and helped apprehend the suspect while working his mail route around Conestoga and Beaver streets.

Today, Fix was recognized as a hero by postmaster Lou DiPerna and Lancaster city police Captain of Detectives John Flemming.

“In my 27 years in the job, I’ve never seen an instance like this,” said Flemming. “That would have been our first murder of the year if it weren’t for his quick thinking.

“There aren’t too many men like Mr. Fix in the world. We need more like him,” added Flemming.

“It’s one of those things where you don’t think about it, you just react,” said Fix, who was embarrassed by all the attention this morning and said he preferred to shun the limelight.

Post Office officials honored him during a brief ceremony at the Postal Annex on Marshall Avenue.

“This makes me very nervous,” Fix said with a resigned smile as several television cameras filmed him.

Aug. 2 was a quiet, sunny morning and the 46-year-old Fix was making his delivery rounds. At about 9:30 he saw two men walking together across the street and then heard a popping sound.

“At first, I thought it was a car backfiring, but then I realized it was a shooting,” he recalled.

Reacting quickly when he realized a man had been shot, Fix pounded on a neighbor’s door and yelled for the home’s occupants to call 911.

Then he turned to the injured man, who had been shot in the face, and held him, waiting for help to arrive.

He remembered being able to see the exit wound left by the bullet on the left side of the man’s face.

Then, the alleged shooter, Frank Hasting Johnson III, returned, apparently intent on finishing the job.

“He walked right up to the victim,” recalled Fix. “I let out a few expletive deletives. It was like a western, with him kind of zigzagging toward me.”

But Fix’s presence prevented the suspect from shooting, according to Flemming, and he fled the scene.

“He (Fix) never left the victim, even when the shooter was coming at him,” Flemming said.

Fix asked the victim the gunman’s name and where he lived, and when police arrived, he gave them a solid description of the alleged shooter.

Johnson was apprehended near North Concord and West Grant streets moments later and confessed to the shooting.

Flemming said the shooting had to do with a drug dispute.

“The victim’s family wrote me a letter of thanks,” Fix said. “I hear he’s doing OK.”

Today, the local hero was given a citation by the post master and praise from city police. The Manheim Township resident had no idea he would be receiving the honor this morning.

“All I knew was they told me to make sure I was here today,” he said. “It was supposed to be my day off.”

Fix said his city route is often lively, but he likes the people and he likes the fact he can walk the route. He’s been delivering mail in the neighborhood for two years.

Before that, he delivered mail in Ephrata for 18 years.