Nashville school shooting: Reporter covering ordeal reveals she survived 2010 school shooting
A reporter covering Monday’s Nashville school shooting revealed during an on-air broadcast she was a survivor of a school shooting.
Joylyn Bukovac of WSMV4 Nashville recalled her fear and shock of hiding from a gunman as a middle-schooler. She shared as an eighth grader in 2010 she was running and not knowing where the gunman was.
Bukovac said that she was in a hallway with her classmates when a gunman opened fire, shooting and killing a student.
“It’s just flooding back,” she said. “Flashbacks for me.”
She shared advice with those who are parents of survivors: Be patient.
Bukovac said it took two years before she felt comfortable talking about it.
“I hid underneath the risers in my choir class and those minutes and hours of waiting to be released by police officers, it just felt like a lifetime,” she said. “And I knew my phone was taken, it was turned off so that no one could find me.”
A woman wielding two “assault-style” rifles and a pistol killed three 9-year-old students and three adults at a private Christian school in Nashville on Monday, according to law enforcement.
The suspect, who was killed by police, is believed to be a former student at The Covenant School in Nashville, where the shooting took place.
The victims were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all 9 years old; and adults Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; and Mike Hill, 61.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.