OMM Newsroom
A 54-year-old teacher who survived a mass shooting at an elementary school in Oregon said she pretended to be dead after being shot, hoping the attacker would not shoot her again.
Becky Drury, a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School, made the statement in remarks shared with US media, according to BBC World. She said she went to check what was happening outside the special-education classroom and tried to close the door after seeing the gunman.
“I did the only thing I could do, which was to pretend to be dead in the hope he would not shoot me again,” Drury said.
The attacker, identified by officials as Griffin J John II, was a 16-year-old former student at the school. He killed three students and a teacher before a parent who had followed him into the school shot and killed him.
Drury said she was shot before she could help any of the children in the classroom. “Lying on the floor, I saw that my left hand was almost completely severed from the gunshot, and my other arm was also severely injured,” she said. “I could not get up, defend myself, or protect anyone else.”
She suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries in the 15 October shooting in Bend. Those killed were five-year-old Rhoam Summer, an eight-year-old and an 11-year-old, and 25-year-old teacher Megan Lambert.
Police said another teacher, who has not been named, tried to disarm the gunman by throwing her mobile phone at him. She was not injured.
Reports had said another teacher threw herself on top of a student to protect the child. Drury said she wanted to clarify what happened that day.
“I know there has been contradictory reporting about my actions that day, but the truth is I was shot before I had any chance to act,” she said.
Police have not disclosed a motive. Officials said the suspect was a student with special educational needs at Silver Rail.
Drury described what happened in the classroom as “unimaginable”. “Like so many in this community, my heart is broken for everyone affected by this tragedy,” she said.
