(COLORADO SPRINGS) — “I woke up to a million texts and calls from my friends and parents,” said Colin Johnson, a sophomore at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs in an interview with FOX21 reporter Maggy Wolanske after two people were found dead in a dorm room Friday morning.
“I didn’t know what was happening,” Johnson said. “I look out my window and there’s a ton of police cars all over the place. “It was crazy to think about—it happened so close.”
Willow Kitchens, another sophomore, said she woke up earlier than usual on Friday morning. “I got out of bed at 6:01 and made my bed like I usually do. I have a puppy so I let her out. I saw three cop cars outside my dormitory.”
Texts and screenshots began pouring in shortly afterward saying there had been a shooting at the school.
“It was already a tragic week for everyone,” Kitchens said, referencing the death of a student at the UCCS gym just days earlier, on Monday, Feb. 12. “It was just really hard. It’s been really groggy, not just the weather, but everybody has just been on edge.”
And then this—another tragedy in the same week, so soon after. “You know, it’s just one of those things that’s like you would never, ever think that someone would have to go through,” Kitchens said. “And then knowing that two more people just went through something, you know, something different. But it’s just tragic on every level.”
UCCS is a small campus, and naturally, it left Kitchens wondering if maybe she’d seen one of the two students who had died.
“I know a few people that are in that dorm and honestly some of them you don’t have contact with, but you know, you see these people every day. They walk past you even if you don’t know them. They’ve said hi to my dog, you know, they’ve pet my puppy before and I don’t even necessarily know their name.”
Nathan Mushlin, a student at UCCS, told FOX21’s reporter a similar story to that of his classmates. He woke up at 7 a.m. and got a text from his roommate. He got up, found his friends and they told him the news.
“At first I didn’t believe it. It was like a fever dream because I was still waking up and everything. Colorado Springs is one of the safest places in Colorado. And for this to happen, it’s nuts.”
“I never would have thought that this would ever happen in my life,” Mushlin said. “It really hasn’t fully hit me yet. But the best I can do is just comfort people. Just be there for people, be there for my community that I love and cherish so much.”
