Jackelyn Garcia’s daughter called her from Apalachee High School on Wednesday morning and told her she had been shot.
“Today has been one of my worst nightmares,” Garcia wrote on Facebook. “From sending my baby off this morning to school, to receiving her call saying, ‘Mommy, I’m shot.’”
Melany, her daughter, is still in the hospital and “has a long road to full recovery.”
“We are so blessed my babies are alive. Melany is so strong,” Garcia wrote.
Four people were killed in the mass shooting in Barrow County, Georgia, and nine others were injured. Two students, Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn, and two teachers, assistant football coach Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall and math teacher Christina Irimie, died.
Colt Gray, a 14-year-old student at the school, has been charged as an adult with murder.
Garcia said Melany “saw her classmates get shot and Christian die.” Details of her injuries were not included in the post, and Garcia did not immediately return calls.
Taylor Jones, another student, was flown to Grady Memorial Hospital after being shot, according to a GoFundMe campaign.
She “is stable after a long surgery,” her sister wrote on the fundraising campaign to help pay her medical costs.
“We still have a long road ahead of us with more surgeries and extensive (physical therapy),” Mackenzie Turner shared on the GoFundMe page. “Thank you all for the love and support.”
One of the teachers who was shot survived.
David Phenix, a teacher at the school, sustained gunshot wounds to his foot and hip, his daughter Katie Phenix said in public Facebook posts. He is expected to remain in the ICU for another couple of days but was stable after surgery.
One of the first things he said after waking up from surgery was, “Is everyone else OK?” according to Katie Phenix’s posts.
“I think that speaks volumes to the type of man he is — always putting others first, no matter his personal situation,” she wrote.
-by Taylor Croft and Cassidy Alexander, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (TNS)
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