A radio host was on air presenting at the very moment that news came through that an active shooter was in her daughter’s school.
Debbie Monterrey’s teenage daughter Caeli managed to get out of the Central Visual & Performing Arts School in St Louis unharmed, but not everyone else did.
Alexandria Bell, 15-year-old student, and PE teacher Jean Kuczka were both killed by the shooting, who was himself then shot dead during a gunfight with police.
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However, Debbie Monterrey was on air at KMOX presenting a segment on how to keep babies safe when three texts arrived to her phone.
The first told her that there was a shooter in the school, the second read ‘OMG it’s not a drill’ before a third that said ‘OMG the alarms are going off.’
It’s every parent’s worst nightmare.
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She was dumbstruck, leaving dead air on the radio station and a guest staring at her across the studio, unaware of the horror that was unfolding.
Speaking to The Washington Post, Monterrey explained: “By this point, I’m like just trying to hold it together,
“Nobody knows what’s happening but me.
“And then I looked up at the TV in the studio, and our local Fox affiliate was doing an aerial [shot] of police surrounding this building and saying there’s an active shooter.”
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That Monday morning, a 19-year-old former student called Orlando Harris entered the school with a rifle – akin to an AR-15 – and 600 rounds of ammunition.
That’s nearly enough to take out the entire school.
Allegedly, he screamed ‘you are all going to die’ before opening fire.
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As well as the two deaths, eight more people were injured.
It’s the 34th school shooting this year, according to stats from The Post.
At a news conference, St Louis Police stated that Harris left behind a letter detailing his life as a ‘loner’.
Back in the studio, Monterrey said that she defied her instincts to run away to try to save Caeli, instead taking 30 seconds to cry during commercials and entering ‘news mode’.
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She continued: “What was running through my head at the time was, ‘I’ve got to explain this, and as long as I stay in reporter mode, I’m going to be able to keep it together because no one wants a blubbering, crying news anchor,’”
She delivered the news on the situation, receiving texts from her daughter to tell her that they’d hidden away to remain safe, before she rushed off to get her at the top of the hour.
Home safe, the pair embraced for hours before heading to bed.
The shock is still real for Monterrey, who said: “I never lose sight of how horrible and painful it has to be for families in school shootings,
“But to be in that position of it being my kid and worrying about my kid and knowing all of the other students that she goes to school with and worrying about them, it’s so personal, it is even harder.
“I don’t know if I ever really thought, ‘Is this ever going to happen to me?’
“But you do always think to yourself, ‘Oh my God, what would I do in that situation?’
“And then yesterday was my turn to see what I would do in that situation.”
Afterwards, she tweeted: “The gunman who shot up my daughter's school Monday had more than 600 rounds of ammo, enough to kill almost everyone in the building.
“These kids are traumatized. I'm traumatized. And it's not if, but WHEN, I will have to report on the NEXT school shooting.”
The truth is she’s probably right, and that’s a huge problem for the whole United States.
Tom Wood