By Andrea Christensen
Brian Wheeler left his early-morning seminary class Monday morning, March 5, and drove to his Southern California high school where, just two hours later, a 15-year-old freshman is believed to have killed two students and injured 13 others in an attack reminiscent of Columbine.
Wheeler, a 17-year-old junior at Santee''s Santana High School, was walking out of a classroom when he heard shots and saw two of his friends fall to the ground.
'I couldn''t figure out what was going on,' he said. 'There was so much commotion.'
Wheeler said he looked up and saw a young man, who was carrying a small gun, shooting from inside the men''s restroom.
'There was no categorized targetting,' Wheeler said. 'He was just shooting at random.'
According to San Diego Country Sheriff William Kolender, the first 911 call came in at 9:22 Monday morning, March 5. Police responded quickly, taking the uninjured suspect into custody and sending students to a nearby shopping center to check in.
Kristen Price, a 16-year-old Santana junior, said she was in the school counseling office when a student brought in a victim who had been shot in the back, shouting, 'Someone''s been shot! Someone''s been shot!'
'It was really scary,' Price said. 'We didn''t know who had done it, so we were scared that he would come into the counseling office.'
Although the attack stunned the nation, nobody was more shocked than residents of the San Diego suburb.
'We''re a town of little-leagues. We''re a town of soccer,' said Santee Mayor Randy Voepel, in a televised news conference Monday, March 5. 'This town has one of the lowest crime rates in Southern California.'
Jennifer Stevenson, 18, a freshman from Santee, majoring in accounting, said she never imagined such a crime would occur in her hometown.
'I know this could happen anywhere, but I honestly didn''t think it could happen in Santee,' she said. 'I used to think that Santee was one of the safer places, but now having this happen in my hometown puts everything in a different light.'
Marissa Price, 22, a senior from Santee, majoring in English, said her initial reaction to the news was one of fear for her two siblings that attend the school.
'At first I was shocked, and then I panicked,' said Price, who graduated from Santana in 1997. 'I just wanted to know if everyone was really okay.'
Although most students were not physically injured in the attack, the memories and effects of the tragedy are sweeping through the small town.
'When it happens somewhere else, it''s sad, but you don''t really give it a second thought,' said Laura Woodward, an 18-year-old senior at West Hills High School, Santee''s only other high school. 'But when it''s so close, it just makes you sick.'
Wheeler said the thoughts of those injured and killed are the worst part of the ordeal for him.
'The hardest part won''t be going back to school,' he said. 'The hardest part is knowing that there are two students who won''t be coming back.'