Extra Inning Softball Exclusive: Jackie McKenna’s First-Hand Account of Florida Shooting

Earlier today, we reported that Mississippi State senior signee Jackie McKenna, an All-State catcher from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, was on campus during the shooting that has so far left 17 dead and at least 14 injured.

Extra Inning Softball spoke to Jackie within the last hour (with the authorization and permission of her and an adult close to her).

When we spoke to the senior athlete, she said students had just received counseling courtesy of the school, which is closed for the rest of the week, and she was minutes away from a vigil organized to honor those killed and wounded.

This is her first-person account…

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“It was terrible,” she begins. “You still can’t believe it. You hear about it on the news, but when it happens to you can’t believe it.”

“I was in the culinary room—in the middle of campus—and this happened at the end of day; it was 20 minutes before the bell rang, at 2:20 pm (EST). We had a fire drill in the morning and everything was fine, we were actually.”

“When the second fire alarm went off, people kind of blamed us but he (the shooter, Nikolas Cruz) pulled it and when the shooting started out, he went into the freshman building which is kind of close so you could hear the shots.”

Jackie says once it was known a shooter was on campus, students and faculty were evacuated or went into classrooms that were unlocked.

“There was a side culinary door open and a kid came in who’s on the baseball team and he slammed the door shut and screamed, ‘Active shooter, get down!’ The classroom door was locked and all of us piled into a closet—a long storage closet—and there were about 60 students, the Assistant AD and our teacher. Kids were also piled under desks, anywhere we could hide.”

The most chilling part of Jackie’s story, however, involves her freshman brother Chris, who was likely the first to see the shooter before the rampage began.

My little brother had angels over him yesterday,” the sister explained.

“Because it was near the end of the day, the bathrooms on the first floor of the freshman building were closed so he went up to the second floor bathrooms.”

“When Chris came out on the East side of the building, he looked down and saw the shooter under the stairs loading his gun.”

He made eye contact with my brother and said, ‘Run, it’s going to get ugly.’”

“Chris didn’t think, he ran to the West side and hopped on a golf cart driven by the security guard, Aaron Feis, who I also know because he was the bus driver who drives us to away (softball) games. They drove to the building right by the freshman one and Chris sprinted to the nearby middle school, and hopped the fence and then called our father, John, who is a DEA Agent and told him what was going on.”

“Our dad called the Sheriff’s Office and asked if they knew what was going on and they didn’t but immediately contacted the FBI, SWAT and had the Sheriff Officers there within five minutes.”

“I can’t imagine what would have happened if it would have taken longer, my brother kind of saved a bunch of lives.”

Jackie says that, though locked in the closet and not in the same building, she and everyone with her heard everything going on around them.

“He (the shooter) had an AR-15 and there was a lot of shooting. I heard every shot, heard screaming from everywhere, heard the helicopter overhead and heard the SWAT team coming in. Everyone in the closet was freaking out, I was just trying to keep people calm and telling them it’d be alright.”

Jackie said that when the door to the culinary room was smashed in, everyone was terrified it was the shooter.

“When the cops broke in, the glass was smashed in and the door was knocked down, and everyone was screaming thinking it was him (Cruz). I put a table in front of me for protection. It was such a relief when they shouted out they were with SWAT and the FBI.”

The softball player said she knew the shooter, Cruz, but not well.

“He went to my middle school,” she remembered, “but he was a loner and didn’t have many friends. I never really spoke to him, he was always by himself. We knew he had a rough life—his mom passed away three months ago—but he was crazy and got expelled from school last year. Everyone pretty much stayed away from him.”

Tragically, Jackie knew personally four of those that were killed, two fellow senior students and two of the adults who had sports connections.

“He shot my friend, Joaquin Oliver, who was a nice kid and made everyone laugh. I’ve known him since middle school and I knew Meadow Pollack since the 5th grade—we went to camps together. The AD, Coach (Chris) Hixon, I knew from softball; he was in the elevator and when it opened he was killed. And the security guard that Chris who was driving the golf cart Chris jumped onto (Aaron Feis), he bravely went into the building where the shooter was and was shot protecting three other students.”

Jackie finished, “He (Cruz) was targeting specific individuals and I’m just thankful my brother and I are safe. I didn’t sleep well last night, we’re all trying to process the situation. It’s something that is crazy and everyone can’t wrap their head around it.”

Photos of Jackie McKenna from Mississippi State Athletics; cover photo by NBCNews.com.