I was in Campbell Hall. Campbell is right across from The Union and the window of my single room looks out on Cowles House. At the time of the shooting, I heard screaming and immediately looked out my window to see groups of students running towards my dorm and Landon hall. They were screaming and crying and banging on the door for us to let them in. This was before the email was sent so there was a sense of extreme distress since no one on my floor understood what was going on.
When people reached our floor they were sobbing and hyperventilating trying to convey what was going on. Someone in our floor groupme (messaging platform) immediately texted to inform us that there was a shooter at The Union that they had fled from. Finally, we received the first email and began locking and barricading our doors, closing our windows, and turning our lights off. There were many girls on my floor who were texting panicking because they had left all of there belongings in The Union because they just had to run.
My RA handled the situation as best as she could as she tried to keep us calm but even she was terrified. Over the next 4 hours, we were all terrified that any noise in the hallway was the shooter because our dorm is so easy to get into. We were forced to pee in trash cans because we were so afraid to go into the hallway. I stayed on the phone with my mom the whole time because I live in a single room and was all alone just so scared.
Right before the shooter was killed, the police came to our floor to try to clear it since it was the building closest to The Union. They banged on my door and said “room 329 Olivia are you in there? can you open the door for us please”, I responded yes and came to the door. As I opened it all four of them had guns drawn and pointed at me and told me to put my hands up as they shined the flashlight in my room. They told me to lock the door and barricade it until it was clear. I shut the door and just began sobbing. I have never been so scared in my life. I just kept thinking it could have been me who goes to The Union all the time to eat and study. It could have been my brother. It could have been any of the girls on my floor. It just could have been anyone. Thank you for reading this and listening to our stories.