Ed Small wasn’t taking classes on the day of the shooting, but working at a farm east of Georgetown. He decided to head to UT when he heard there was an active shooter on campus.
“We ran over toward Guadalupe – right on the corner there was Sheftall Jewelers.
And as we were running that direction, people were yelling at us to get down and get back, and I guess we thought we were invincible for some reason. ‘Surely, nobody could shoot you from the tower, that’s way over there.’
Well, we got around and we saw blood on the concrete and holes in the glass windows.
When they waived the white flag from the top, which indicated to us that it was over and they had him, we ran to the tower and stood by a door. An ambulance was there, and they rolled a gurney in that door. And the crowd kind of gathered there, and we were there when they came out with the body on the gurney.
It was just a terribly traumatic event that unfolded right there in front of all of our eyes. And unfortunately, folks that died, and the families that were affected – it was an awful thing.
The fact that there was a person on top of the tower shooting people on the ground was just not something that you would think about, prior to that event happening. That just doesn’t happen. I didn’t recognize the danger – it was just a big event and you had to be there. And there you go running right in the middle of it, and not thinking that it could be you too.
But that was of interest to everyone: why, why, why would he have done it? And frankly, I don’t think there’s ever been a good answer to that.”