A brave sixth grader feared for his life as he comforted younger students when a gunman opened fire at a small Christian school in California on Wednesday.
Jocelyn Orlando was horrified when a gunman struck just meters away from her at the Seventh-day Adventist Feather River School in Palermo, critically injuring her 5- and 6-year-old children. Even though I felt this way, I rushed to help.
“I was thinking, what if I get shot? What will happen to my family and me,” she says. told CBS13.
They were returning from their lunch break when they heard gunshots and screams. The 6th grade student swallowed his fear and stood up to calm down the panicking juniors around him.
“I told the kindergarteners to take deep breaths and just think about happy things,” Jocelyn said.
“I told the schoolchildren to close their eyes and cover their ears” as the perpetrator was “pacing back and forth through the window” threateningly.
The attacker, who has not yet been identified, managed to beat the two boys before turning the gun on himself.
“It was really, really sad,” said the brave sixth-grade witness.
Butte County Sheriff Cory Honea said the boys were taken by helicopter to a hospital, one of whom was in “extremely serious condition.”
The perpetrator gained access to the school, which had just 35 students, to meet with the principal about the student's potential admission.
“Shortly after that meeting, the principal heard gunshots and screams, and that's when he determined or discovered that two students had been shot,” Honea said.
He is not believed to have any ties to the school or its students, but may have targeted the school because of its affiliation with the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
CBS13 reports that One in Five for Kids (formerly the Uvalde for Kids Foundation) announced Thursday that it will present Orlando with an award for his bravery during the mass shooting.
