South Jersey humanitarian killed while helping people in Ukraine
A South Jersey man who went from the U.S. Marines to service as a humanitarian, has been killed while rendering aid in Ukraine, according to a statement from his nonprofit group.
Pete Reed, a native of Bordentown, was killed Thursday in Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine that has seen heavy fighting in recent weeks.
His death was announced by Global Response Medicine, a nonprofit co-founded by Reed.
The agency's website carries the message: "Going where others won't, doing what others can't."
"Pete was just 33 years old, but lived a life in service of others," the nonprofit said in a statement.
It said Reed, GRM's board president for four years, had "stepped away (from the agency) to work with Global Outreach Doctors on their Ukraine mission and was killed while rendering aid," the statement said.
It called Reed's death "a stark reminder of the perils rescue and aid workers face in conflict zones as they serve citizens caught in the crossfire."
"GRM will strive to honor his legacy and the selfless service he practiced," it said.
Reed was helping to evacuate Ukrainian civilians when his vehicle was hit with a "reported missile," Global Outreach Doctors (GoDocs) said in a statement.
It said Reed had joined GoDocs last month as its Ukraine Country Director.
Reed, a 2007 graduate of Bordentown Regional High School, was a Marine Corps rifleman who served two tours in Afghanistan, according to a biography at GRM's website.
He lived in the west as a ski instructor, then started his humanitarian service with Team Rubicon, a veteran-led nonprofit, after Superstorm Sandy hit New Jersey in 2012.
Reed traveled in 2015 to northern Iraq, where he led medical teams with Kurdish military forces fighting to retake the city of Mosul from the Islamic State. Reed worked with others to launch GRM while still operating frontline clinics during the Battle of Mosul, the biography says.
It says Reed, who worked on an ambulance as a paramedic, had participated since 2017 in GRM missions in Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Poland.
According to its website, GRM is an "agile medical force made up of veteran, EMS, fire, and wilderness personnel; healthcare providers and medical academics; humanitarians and logistics specialists; volunteers and donors."
The NGO provides "rapid medical relief, clinical health services, and all the essential supports between," the website says.
Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal.
This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Bordentown NJ man dies during Ukraine humanitarian mission
