Marysville-Pilchuck students describe terror in cafeteria as shooting started

Students at Marysville-Pilchuck High School are describing a scene of terror and chaos as a fellow student opened fire in a crowded cafeteria Friday morning.

Freshman Austin Taylor tells KING 5 he was sitting at a table next to a group of students, including the shooter.

“I had just gotten done eating my food and he was quiet. He was just sitting there, everyone was talking. All of a sudden I see him stand up, pull something out of his pocket…

At first I thought it was just someone making a really loud noise with like a bag, like a big loud pop, until I heard four more after that. And I saw three kids just fall from the table like they were falling to the ground dead.”

Freshman Hannah tells KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson she was sitting with friends at another table in the cafeteria at the time of the shooting.

“I heard one gunshot and I started looking around. I didn’t know where it came from. I thought somebody popped a bag, like stepped on it or something, but I figured that’s too loud for that. I heard like two or three more gunshots….and I was like this is serious. And all my friends started screaming and I saw like six people on the floor. There was blood all over the place,” she says.

Hannah says the gunman, a fellow student she knew by name but was not friends with, unloaded the gun, loaded it again, and then ran out.

“We were all under the table and ducking down. It was just really scary,” she says.

Taylor says it was sheer chaos in the cafeteria immediately following the shooting.

“I jumped under the table as fast as I could and when it stopped, I looked back up and I saw that he was trying to reload his gun and when that happened, I just ran the opposite direction. I was out of there as fast I could.”

Taylor says students who knew the shooter had no indication he was troubled.

“He had a blank stare, he was just calm during the whole thing and he was perfectly fine the day before. I remember talking to him. He seemed like the normal old kid that we all knew and everyone knew him as that kid and he was very nice.”

Lathan Bernard, 15, a sophomore at the school tells KIRO Radio he had just left the cafeteria when the shooting started.

“I heard one shot followed by five more and I just looked at my friend and told him to run, and my heart started pumping, and my feet started moving. I just ran…I can’t even comprehend what just happened.”