Some readers may find this article distressing.
A 54-year-old teacher who survived a mass shooting at an Oregon elementary school said she pretended to be dead so the gunman would not shoot her again.
Becky Drury, a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School, said in a statement shared with US media that as she tried to shut her classroom door, the gunman shot her and she fell to the floor.
“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 – who has been identified as a 16-year-old former student at the school – killed three students and a teacher before a parent from the school fatally shot him.
In her first remarks since the 15 October shooting in Bend, Oregon, Drury said that she went to see what was happening outside the special-education classroom, and after spotting the shooter, she tried to shut the door.
The attacker still managed to shoot her, so she could not 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.”
Drury suffered serious but not life-threatening harm from the shooting, which killed five-year-old Rhoam Summer, an eight and eleven-year-old, and 25-year-old teacher Megan Lambert.
Police have said another teacher – who has not been named – attempted to disarm the gunman by throwing her mobile phone. She was not injured.
A father of two other children who had followed the suspect into the school then shot and killed the attacker, who officials named as Griffin J John II.
Reports had emerged that another teacher threw herself on top of a student to protect the child during the shooting, but Drury said she wanted to clear the record about what happened on 15 October.
“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 in her statement.
Police have not yet shared a motive for the suspect, who officials say was a special-education needs student at Silver Rail.
Drury said what happened in the classroom was “unimaginable”.
“[L]ike so many in this community, my heart is broken for everyone affected by this tragedy,” she said.
