Imagine an ordinary morning turning into a nightmare. Gunfire, smoke, and pure terror. One mother’s instinct took over as she raced against all odds, past chaos and danger, to reach her son. Would you run towards the sound of danger for your child?
The ordinary tranquility of a Wednesday morning shattered into a terrifying scene for Laura DuSchane. Having just walked her three-year-old son, Rory, across the street to Annunciation Catholic School for his third day of preschool, she could not have foreseen the nightmare that was about to unfold, transforming a routine task into a moment of pure dread amidst a devastating church shooting.
As smoke began to drift ominously over Annunciation Church, clouding its façade, Laura’s world fractured. Neighbors stood frozen, their faces etched with shock, but a primal mother’s love propelled her forward. Disregarding shouts from men fleeing the scene, warning her of an active shooter situation, DuSchane sprinted instinctively towards the peril, her sole focus on reaching her child.
Her desperate race brought her face-to-face with unimaginable trauma. Children, many bloodied, were being evacuated from the church. The sheer scale of the unfolding tragedy was immediately apparent, forcing her to compartmentalize the horror and press on, driven by an urgent need to ensure her son’s school safety.
The grim reality of the incident quickly emerged. The day’s toll included twenty casualties, with two young children, Fletcher Merkel, aged eight, and Harper Moyski, aged ten, succumbing to gunshot wounds at the scene. Fifteen more children, ranging from six to fifteen years old, sustained injuries, alongside three parishioners in their eighties. Miraculously, all injured individuals are expected to survive, a testament to the rapid community response that followed.
Undeterred by the chaos, DuSchane pushed through the pandemonium, unaware the active shooter was firing from outside the church. The air was filled with the screams of children, and bodies lay crumpled on the pavement. Spotting another parent she recognized, they charged together towards the school entrance, a shared desperation uniting them in the face of widespread gun violence.
Finally, ducking into the school next to the church, DuSchane burst into Rory’s preschool classroom. The children, still oblivious to the terror just outside, sat quietly. Her frantic gaze swept the room until it landed on Rory’s face, a moment of profound relief in the heart of despair.
Though years had passed since her last active-shooter drill, muscle memory took over. Rory’s teacher, Hannah Rausch, remarkably composed despite being only three days into her job, gathered the class, transforming the harrowing situation into a “quiet game” to protect their innocence.
Outside, a frantic tide of parents streamed towards the school, faces wet with tears, some sprinting, some staggering, all desperate for news of their children. DuSchane’s husband was among them. Eventually, officers urged reunited families to move away, making space for those still agonizingly searching.
Reflecting on those agonizing moments, DuSchane recounted, “I only had to feel that feeling for about 15 minutes, and that was the worst 15 minutes of my entire life.” Her words encapsulate the profound terror and emotional scarring left by the harrowing events of that day, highlighting the enduring impact on the community and the critical importance of school safety protocols.
