Claire Papoulias was in class on Monday night in Berkey Hall when she heard gunshots on the campus of Michigan State University.
She said she immediately dropped to the floor along with her classmates as someone yelled there was a shooter, she told NBC’s “Today” show on Tuesday.
“And at that moment, I thought I was going to die. I was so scared. I didn’t cry. Which is surprising for me. I just like kind of kept quiet and I called my mom,” she said.
For Claire’s mother, Natalie, getting that phone call was her “worst nightmare.” Hearing gunshots and screaming while on the phone with her daughter, she said she got into her car and started driving toward the campus.
Remember: The first report of shots fired came at 8:18 p.m. ET from Berkey Hall, an academic building on the northern end of campus. Officers responded to the building within minutes and found several shooting victims, including two who died, MSU police said Monday.
Papoulias said the shooter had come in through a back door of the classroom.
“He came through the back, and he just started attacking people. And I will never forget the screams of my classmates as they were screaming in pain for help,” she said.
Some “brave classmates” were helping out the ones who were shot while other classmates got a window open, which is how she escaped and “just ran for my life,” she said.
“If it weren’t for my classmates helping everyone, I don’t think that we would have all made it,” the sophomore said.
