Collegiate Times

Derek O'Dell is a survivor of the April 16 shootings.

Derek, realizing he had been shot in the arm, fashioned a tourniquet from his belt and dialed 911. Meanwhile, Trey Perkins, one of the uninjured students, surveyed the room, providing whatever aid he could to his injured classmates.

As Derek spoke with emergency operators, Cho returned to the classroom to finish what he had started minutes before. Despite attempting to use his body as a battering ram to gain entrance, Derek and Katelyn held strong and only allowed the door to momentarily open several inches.

Frustrated, Cho shot several times through the center of the door before moving on to another classroom. At this point, Derek, with his body pressed firmly against the door, began to pray.

"I prayed that he wouldn't be able to get back in," Derek said. "Nothing would ever stop him; there were two inches of wood between us. It seemed like there was nothing that we could do that would stop him from killing us."

With the adrenaline pumping and other concerns preoccupying him, Derek failed to realize that he had come even closer to death than he had originally thought. He later noticed two additional bullet holes in his fleece jacket that had not struck his torso.

"The last bullet that he fired through the door came through the front of my jacket, but didn't hit my body," Derek said. "It was shocking that it came that close."

Once more, Cho returned to room 207. Again, though his efforts were still stifled by Derek and Katelyn, he fired shots into the door's core. Having failed again, Cho left once more, directing his ammunition upon himself not 30 seconds later.

Though the air was absent of the sound of gunshots and had been filled with the sound of police presence, Derek, Katelyn and the remaining survivors were unaware of Cho's death. Police officers instructed those who were able to exit the building to do so with their hands in the air.

"We didn't know where he was at all," Derek said. "All we saw were cops using their car doors as shields. I thought he'd be firing at people outside from one of the windows, so I ran toward the Drillfield."

Shortly after 10 a.m. the first group of wounded students arrived at Montgomery Regional Hospital. Upon arriving at the hospital, Derek said it was the first time he had felt safe since Cho had entered room 207 45 minutes earlier.

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