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by Brian Williams, NBC News
4/16/07
[Transcribed from the video by Tara
Carreon, American Buddha Online Librarian]
NBC News, April 16: Brian Williams
is on the campus of Virginia Tech University and talks to two of the
students who witnessed the shootings early Monday Morning.
Trey Perkins and Derek O'Dell, two
young men you just saw in Kevin's report are both Sophomores here at
Virginia Tech. Derek, who was shot in the arm along with Trey is with us
now, and Derek, we'll start with you . First of all, your wounds: how
long have you been out of treatment, and what did doctors tell you, what
happened?
[Derek O'Dell] The doctors actually
treated me really quickly considering the circumstances. I was shot in
the arm and the bullet went through, and I was in and out of the
hospital in under two hours.
[Brian Williams] They have said they
used a larger caliber 9 mm. and a smaller .22. Was your wound caused by
that smaller caliber .22, do you know?
[Derek ODell] I'm not really sure.
They didn't tell us at the hospital.
[Brian Williams] Okay. Well, let's
begin with the story and Derek, maybe we'll start with Trey, and tell us
where you were when it started.
[Trey Perkins] We were both sitting
in German class. He actually sits right in front of me. I remember
looking at my clock at 9:35, and about ten minutes later we heard some
gunshots across the hall. We really didn't know what it was at the time.
After we hard that, a man just ran in, he shot our professor, and we all
just got on the ground really quick, and he just continued to shoot, and
I was just praying that, you know, I would be okay, and that so many
people around me would be okay as well, and I'm incredibly fortunate
that I wasn't hit.
[Brian Williams] So you just dove
under your desk? Did you pile together at all, or were you all
individuals?
[Trey Perkins] It was a very small
class so there weren't a lot of people to get together, so I turned a
couple of desks over to try to get that between us and the shooter. He
shot for probably a minute and a half, and after that he left. And I got
up, I saw Derek, he had been hit in the arm, and another girl in our
class as well, she was standing up. And we went over to the door, and
the three of us were just trying to keep it shut, and he eventually
tried to come back in, he was pushing on the door trying to get back in,
but we were holding it shut with our feet and our hands, and he shot
through the door four or five times. Fortunately, none of us were hit
when he was shooting through the door, and after that he just finally
went away, and I just started looking around and I went over to another
student who had been shot in the leg, I just took my sweatshirt off and
kind of put it on his leg to try and stop the bleeding, just try to do
whatever I could, and the police arrived pretty shortly after that.
[Brian Williams] Derek, describe it
for me. It's been said that he was wearing a vest with a couple of clips
of ammo on it?
[Derek O'Dell] I saw him actually
reload the clip while he was in our room. He unloaded probably 8 or 10
shots into people in our class, very tragically, and he reloaded his
clip and nobody could really stop him because we were all scared out of
our minds.
[Brian Williams] Its like in a
movie, where you see people reload in the movies and on television.
[Derek O'Dell] Yeah, he looked to be
trained in how fast he reloaded the gun.
[Brian Williams] How would you
describe him physically?
[Derek O'Dell] He was a male Asian
about six feet tall with a maroon hat, and a leather jacket on.
[Brian Williams] Would you guys
recognize him from around campus?
[Trey Perkins] Not at all.
[Brian Williams] So I know you don't
have a heck of a lot of time to think beyond saving your own life, do
you remember having any thoughts while you were barricading yourself
under a piece of furniture?
[Trey Perkins] I thought of my mom,
and about how when she hears about it, what is going to go through her
head, and if something was to happen to me, how she would deal with it.
[Brian Williams] How is it you think
you guys have held it together to be able to even do this, and stand
here and talk to us here tonight?
[Derek O'Dell] I think we're both
still in shock.
It's a surreal moment that's happened to both of us, and
for us to both be here, it's amazing we were saved.
[Brian Williams] Well, look, I know
I join all of our viewers in saying we're sorry for the loss of your
fellow students, and the whole nation reaches out to you. You've got a
lot of support if and when you need it. And we're thankful you were able
to describe this for us and our viewers tonight. You guys take care.
Thank you gentlemen. Thank you very much. Our thanks to Derek and Trey,
an emotional story that is still coming out in stories like theirs.
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