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In March, approximately four years after the massive shooting of King Soopes, a co -authorship study of a boulder researcher at the University of Colorado, discovered that about 7% of American adults will be on the scene of a mass shooting in their life.
“That is a fairly large number. It almost challenges the belief that it was very large, but really during the past year, when talking with police chiefs, victims’ defenders, street scope and young people wrapped in conflicts, you begin to realize, well, maybe that number is not as shocking as you would lead you to believe,” said the researcher of Cu Dav David Pyrooz.
Today, King Soope survivors are still dealing with their trauma and pain.
On March 22, 2021, Logan Smith, a Delicatessen worker at the table King Soopes, was climbing in the Starbucks kiosk inside the store. His best friend and co -worker, Denny Stong, had just stopped on his day off to see Smith and left the store when he was shot dead.
Today, Smith, 24, listens to Stong in his head: his laughter, his sarcastic comments. Smith said in his head that his friend’s voice has matured and is quieter than Smith remembers it, which reflects the four years since the shooting that ended the life of 10 people.
“Living with the fault of that survivor, that was the long one he took to heal: the acceptance that I can’t go back and change anything,” said Smith. “I can’t run to Rikki before the shots come and protect it. I can’t tell Denny not to walk that way.”
Smith was one of the approximately 120 people who left the store alive that day and, according to Pyrooz, he is one of every 15 American adults to be on the scene of a mass shooting in his life.
‘Maybe that number is not as shocking as you would believe’
Pyrooz, who was co -author of the study, said the researchers conducted a national survey to try to estimate the exposure of a lifetime to mass shootings, defined as when they shoot four or more people, even if the shooter is triggered.
In the study, the researchers wrote that for a person to be considered as in the scene of a mass shooting, he must have been in the immediate vicinity of where the shooting occurred at the time it occurred, which means that the bullets were shot in the direction of the person, they could see the shooter or could hear the shots.
In the Las Vegas shooting in 2017 in which they killed 60 people, 413 were injured by shots or shrapnel and another 454 were injured in the course of the flight, Pyrooz said. There were 22,000 people who attended the concert, not including employees and contractors, said Pyrooz.
“The exposure numbers do not feel so striking when you start to break down these events,” he said.
In the study, approximately 2% of respondents said they had been injured during a mass shooting, which could include being triggered, trampled by people fleeing or other types of injuries.
According to the study, more than half of the survivors said that the shooting they experienced occurred in the last decade, and men and blacks were more likely to have witnessed a massive shooting than other sexual or racial demographic.
The study, published by Jama Network Open, also found that income and education level “did not have a measurable impact” on the possibilities of being present or injured in a massive shooting. Those who run the greatest risk of being on the scene of a mass shooting are from generation Z.
“It doesn’t surprise you when a volcano explodes that things caught fire”
Chris Tatum was working in the Department of Delicatessen when the King Soopers shooting occurred and returned to the store three times separated during the course of the shooting to save people, including Elan Shakti, who was the only victim of the application of the injured law but not killed as a result of the shooting.
Like Smith, who was the first to call 911 and helped his co -worker to hide, Tatum said he is not considered a hero and still fights with Survivor’s fault.
“I helped many people out of the store, so I do not do it, it is difficult to describe, I have a bit of the survivor’s fault and I am proud of what I did, but it is difficult for me to say: ‘Oh, I was a hero’ or I did something really brave,” Tatum said. “It was brave, but it is difficult for me to recognize that within myself.”
Tatum, whose parents worked on the application of the law and taught him to be aware of his surroundings, said that when he heard the studies of the study, he was not surprised.
“I felt that I was a little more prepared for an incident like this, it is not that I would ever want to review it, but the statistics on how many people are injured, how many people lose their lives within these incidents, it is not surprising,” Tatum said. “There is a lot of violence that accumulates within a person who makes them want to get that violence to others. In my mind, it is like a volcano, it is not surprised when a volcano explodes that things turn on fire.”
“People who were completely destroyed from him were forced to fend for themselves”
Together with the pain of the co -workers who lost, Tatum and Smith said they have fought mentally due to their trauma. Smith said that support to survivors has decreased and fluid from the shooting.
“I wanted to get to the audience of the community as a witness there, as an employee there: I spoke with many news agencies. That continued for two or three weeks after the shooting until the next mass shooting occurred, and it was like a fashion that became another fashion,” said Smith. “The coverage stopped, the support stopped slowly and the US witnesses. Uu. They went back to the world.”
Smith said that he wants Kroger and King Soope to have provided more to survivors, such as the therapy paid by the company or a life pension.
“Obviously, they did not cause him, but his management (the shooting) moved us completely from our jobs, those who wanted to return, returned. But the people who were completely destroyed from him were practically forced to fend for themselves. Kroger was a multimillion -dollar company, I think they could pay a small pension for employees who were involved.”
Smith said he has fought with flashbacks and that he has previously found in a state of shock for background and fireworks cars. In the first two months, Smith fought with sudden and uncontrolled contractions as a result of his trauma, which made him hit his head against a wall several times.
Tatum said his trauma has made him more irritable and that he is always looking for the closest exit in public places.
Pyrooz said that he and his colleagues are investigating how mass shootings affect the mental health of the people who experience them in their communities or directly from being on the scene.
“It is possible that their physical body is no longer here, they are dusty with the stars again or are under the ground, but their spirit lives forever,”
Despite his flashbacks, Smith tries to focus on silver linings, such as their relationships with others who have been affected as Stong’s parents.
After the shooting, Stong’s father worked with Smith to fix the 2002 Chevrolet Blazer of his son. In July 2021, on a heat day, Smith finally finished fixing the car.
The 24 -year -old remember to have put in the driver’s seat, put the favorite Pink Floyd CD of Stong and get away with tears in his eyes.
“As you go through life,” said Smith, “at least from my perspective, the beautiful thing is that those you love, those you lose, their physical body is no longer here, they are dusty with the stars again or are under the ground, but their spirit lives forever.”
Originally published:
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