Samantha's Story - Florida Shooting Victim

Video Transcript:

It turned out to a young woman named Samantha Grady. She's a junior at that high school. And Samantha was hiding in a classroom. Was actually graced by bullets during that shooting. Samantha, good morning. It looks good to see your face. Thank you for being with us. Anytime. Thank you for having me. Samantha, at first, I want to know how you're feeling. I know you did get some bullet wounds. And I know your best friend was shot right next to you. Yeah. Do you know how she's doing? Have you been able to hear what happened to her? Yeah, unfortunately, she didn't make it. Samantha, we're so. Yeah. We're so sorry about that, Samantha. So sorry. You were, are you OK, honey? I'm OK. Thank you. Oh. We're sending love and prayers to you right now. Tell us if you can. What it was like in that classroom during those moments, did you hear the gunfire first? What happened? Well, so I was doing an assignment for my Holocaust class. And we were like, I was typing. And I took my phone out because I wanted to show my friend something. And then I heard two shots. My friend pushed me and said, Sam, and I ran to the left side of the classroom. That's where there was a big bookshelf. And we all kind of huddled there together. We were all making it. We all clamped really close tightly together. And then students in front of me, there was this cabinet. They pushed it in front of them so that it would deter some of the bullets. And the gunmen, like there was two people in the hallway that I know. And I believe that they were shot. And after those two, after I heard those two gunshots, then we started running. And then he came for our classroom. So he came after he shot those other two people. And Sam, as I understood it, the door to your classroom was actually locked, but he shot through the glass. Is that what happened? Yeah. Yeah, the door was locked, thankfully. But he shot quite a few bullets into the glass. And it hit a few people behind me. And yeah, there's some sense. And sometimes you put anything in front of you that you can to try to protect yourself. And we were reading that your friends suggested you just get a book, hold up a book. Yeah. My friend, she was one who pushed me. And we were running. We were already situated by the bookshelf. And she's like grab a book, grab a book. So I took a book. It was a tiny book. But I took a book, and I helped it up. And I believe maybe the book kind of deterred some of the bullets. So it didn't hit me so badly. But she was the one who gave me the idea. She definitely helped a lot. Samantha, I know you were able to get out of this school. We went over to where it was safer by the ambulance. I was already taken care of. I was already in the hospital bed. They walked in. And my dad was really worried. It was etched all over his face. And my mom, she was like, bawling. As you can imagine, it was pretty scary for both of them. Well, you are such a brave young woman. The fact that you were in that classroom, you had the presence of mind to call 911. And you're worried about your parents' feelings. I mean, that's what you're thinking about. Tell us what happened when you got home. Were you able to talk it out with your family? Did you feel like discussing it? Well, we did have, I mean, a lot of people asked the, I was, well, actually at the hospital, someone came in. And they told me, talk about it as much as you can so we can get out of your brain. And so you don't have like nightmares about it. So whenever the opportunity came, like whenever and someone asked, I freely talked about it, because I don't want nightmares. And so like my family, we talked about it at the hospital. And then we came back. We had discussions. And I told them different little details that I didn't tell other people. I told them specific details. And they, like, it was an intense moment. My whole family, like, we came together. It was, it was pretty, it was not. The support was nice. The myth that you have been, you have been through too much, way too much for a young woman in your age, but what bravery you showed and our hearts are with you. And we're sending you our love. Thank you for being with us. Thank you.