COLUMBUS, Ohio — Michigan State freshman Liz Hedger is back with her family in Granville where she says she’s still trying to process what happened at her school just two days ago.
Authorities say 43-year-old Anthony McRae opened fire inside an academic building and the student union just before 8:30 p.m. Monday.
Three students were killed and five others were injured in the shootings. An hourslong lockdown at the campus ended when McRae killed himself miles away while being confronted by police.
Liz said she was walking back to her dorm when she got a text from her mom telling her to shelter in place.
“I feel really blessed, honestly, I'm not super religious but I just feel super lucky,” she said.
Liz said she did not have text alerts set up on her phone but received the email from the school regarding an active shooter on campus.
“It said, you know, hide fight run, in that order, like if you can't hide, then run, and if you can't run then fight,” she said.
Liz then started listening to police scanners and calling her roommate to make sure she was safe.
“I was listening, and I start hearing them saying ‘floor one of the union, cleared’ or ‘we're going through floor 2 or we need ambulances now, stat’. And it was just starting to feel a lot more surreal,” she said.
She says she went into fight or flight mode and was surprisingly calm and rational.
“I was like, ‘OK, we don't know how much this is real, even if there is someone nearby, that there are cops swarming the area, it's incredibly scary situation but I'm in my room, I’m bunkered down, if a shot came through the window, I'm currently on the ground,’” Liz said.
She explains she had been doing active shooter drills every other month at her school since she was a child.
"I have a vivid memory of my sixth grade they were saying, we're going to have an active shooter drill, it'll happen in the middle of passing periods and you just have to be prepared for it,” she said.
Lisa Hedger, Liz's mom, credits Michigan State for their constant and immediate communication with students and parents.
“Parents, make sure you do sign up for these alerts, make sure your kids have these alerts and make sure it's both text and email,” she said.
Liz says she’ll be heading back to school on Monday with a far different perspective on life.
“We're going to hold each other a lot closer in our individual families and on campus, I think our campus families will be a lot tighter,” she said.