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mindy
- Sixteen-year-old Camp Counselor at Time of Shooting
- Shot: August 10 1999
- North Valley JCC Granada Hills California
Oh, it's paint
Mindy: "I was in the back forty acres at the camp playing Capture the Flag. We had all this stuff, and I took one of the kids, James, up to the building to put it away. That's when it happened, feeling air rush through my leg, and knowing I was shot, and then hearing it. I started running, I grabbed James. We kind of transformed and were in this room. There were thirty kids already in the room, they were asking, 'What's on her leg?' and everyone was going, 'Oh, it's paint,' I guess they all had my blood on them. You could hear the bullets still going. At this point we didn't know James was shot. All the counselors brought the kids out. I was the last counselor to leave the room because I was the slowest. Everyone else ran ahead of me. I guess the gunman looked outside and saw me running and he shot through the glass and the glass shattered, but he didn't hit me; maybe he saw my leg bleeding and he recognized me as someone he had shot, but not killed. Later he told the FBI he wanted me to die.
We should play dead
"I just kind of dropped, I couldn't run anymore. There was a girl counselor who stayed behind and helped me because she didn't want me to stay by myself. I owe her so much. I just thought I was going to die; I was just going to let it happen. I was crying. I was talking to the girl. She said, 'I don't know if he's going to come out here, we should play dead.' I closed my eyes. A lot was going through my mind: Had I accomplished anything I wanted to? What kind of person had I been? I was convinced this was it. Every single person who I had recently not gotten along with, I wanted to tell them, I'm sorry. It was a very realistic moment.
I kept thinking about Columbine
"The hardest part for me was in the ambulance, they were trying to find the bullets and they cut off my shorts and underwear, and then they left the doors open and left, because it was so chaotic. I saw these counselors running back and forth, and heard, 'Mindy's been shot! We're looking for the shooter; we know he has a machine gun!' I kept thinking about Columbine. I was terrified beyond belief that my campers were gone. The first bullet went straight through my calf. The top bullet went through my thigh and hit my femur and came out in pieces.
I was convinced I was fine
"In the hospital I thought it was a big party; everyone was coming to visit. At home celebrities were calling me. I was convinced I was fine. Nine months later I tried to go to college and had a major breakdown. I ended up having an eating disorder and being hospitalized. I had to leave college and take a year off and go through severe therapy.