As law enforcement surrounded Wilmer-Hutchins High School on Tuesday and frantic parents scrambled to reach their children, Milton Nieto says he was driving nearby, unaware of what happened.

He said a teenager near some train tracks flagged him down.

“I rolled my window down just to see what was happening, and he looked like he was in distress,” Nieto told NBC 5.

He didn’t know it at the time, but now says the young man was 17-year-old shooting suspect, Tracy Haynes, Jr.

Nieto said Haynes told him he’d been in a wreck and needed to get to his father, but as they drove, things didn’t add up.

“It’s not making sense to me,” Nieto said. “I’m asking him where is he going, and he’s saying ‘I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.’”

Nieto said he dropped Haynes at a gas station, then called police to report the alleged wreck. After speaking with a detective and reading news about the shooting, he learned the situation was much more dire.

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“I acted out of a good heart, and I was put in a bad situation, potentially bad situation. The young man didn’t seem like he wanted to hurt me. It just seemed like he was in trouble,” Nieto said.

He said officers showed him images from inside Wilmer-Hutchins High School to confirm it was Haynes who stopped him. He told police the teen was carrying a hoodie, but did not know if he was armed with a gun.

He also directed police to the railroad tracks where the teen told him he’d crashed.

Nieto said he’s now praying for everyone involved.

“I felt some empathy when I originally picked him up, and it was hard for me to feel any kind of empathy when I saw what he did and how he lied to me the whole time, but I won’t hold a grudge,” he said. “I’ll continue to pray for the man and all the young people of our generation. Just hope for the best, ya know.”