Jackie Matthews, a Michigan State University student, who escaped the mass shooting on Monday, revealed that she has also survived the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012. Three students were fatally shot by a 43-year-old gunman and five others were in critical condition.
Authorities identified the gunman as Anthony Dwayne McRae. The three victims are – Alexandria Verner, Brian Fraser and Arielle Anderson.
Also Read: Who was Brian Fraser, Michigan State University shooting victim from Grosse Pointe?
Who is Jackie Matthews?
Matthews is a senior at Michigan State University. Previously, she studied at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Matthews, a victim of two massacres who described her experiences in a TikTok video published on Tuesday, February 14, stated, “I’m 21 and this is now my second mass shooting.”
When she was a student at Sandy Hook Elementary School, shooter Adam Lanza had killed 20 students, six teachers, and numerous staff members in a horrific massacre on December 14, 2012.
While speaking from a building across the university road, where shooter McRae killed three victims and severely wounded several others, Matthews spoke openly about her terrifying experience during the school massacre. She reportedly said that she still has a “full-blown PTSD fracture” even ten years after the Newtown school shooting. Matthews also mentioned that she still has lower back problems from being forced to spend hours crouching in the Sandy Hook classroom during the tragedy.
She said, “The fact that this is the second mass shooting that I have now lived through is incomprehensible.”
Also Read: Who was Alexandria Verner, Michigan State University shooting victim?
According to The New York Post, Matthews is not the only MSU student to have survived a school shooting more than once. One more MSU freshman who wishes to remain anonymous also witnessed the Oxford High School shooting in 2021.
Incidentally, the fatal MSU shooting occurred on the same day as the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, which happened five years ago.
