ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT INTERVIEW ON TITANIC

Friday, January 6, 2017

Being in the Middle of the Fort Lauderdale Shooting

The first thing you think of is running. Running like you never ran before because what you heard behind you was BAM BAM BAM BAM. It is a metallic sound and suddenly people are screaming all around you shooter and it is like that you lose everyone and suddenly you are outside without your family and your heart is going so fast you think you might have a heart attack. You end up behind a cab with a woman and her baby and the police are running too and cars are screaming past and the terminal you were just in is now empty. But you don't know where your family is. So you go back  to the terminal and go inside.

Inside there are suitcases and trash and shoes but no people. It is empty. You wonder if the shooter is going to rise up and kill you but you are there looking for your family. So you go back out and people are cowering all over the place behind light poles trees, shrubs, and crying and you are trying to dial your phone but so is everyone else so you text and a text comes back we are ok. But still you are not sure and you go looking while knowing you are a target. And then you find them cowering under some plastic mats but you dont see your son. You grab your youngest daughter and run down toward the media already gathering.

Eventually you find a fat concrete post to hide behind while news people run low to the ground and swat teams stream by. Your wife and other daughter appear and then finally your son.  And for the next few hours you stay low to the ground while they search the airport. But all your luggage is still in the terminal. You go back and a soldier lets you in and you grab the suitcases and bags and shoes you left behind Eventually you are put on shuttle buses with a police escort and taken to the port area. From there you Uber to a hotel. Then you  lock yourself in. You and your family made it. Five other people did not.




Books by William Hazelgrove