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[h=4]Va. TV shooting survivor: 'I saw movement. And then gunfire'[/h]Vicki Gardner, the woman who survived when two Virginia TV journalists were shot and killed by a disgruntled ex-colleague last month, said she played dead in an attempt to survive.
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Vicki Gardner was injured in a shooting the occurred during a live on-air interview in near Roanoke, Va.(Photo: File photo)
Vicki Gardner, the woman who survived when two Virginia TV journalists were shot and killed by a disgruntled ex-colleague last month, said she played dead in an attempt to escape the killer's bullets.
In her first interview since the August 26 attack, she told Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren that the gunman, Vester Flanagan, returned to shoot her in the back after killing WDBJ7 reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward. Gardner, a chamber of commerce official, was being interviewed when the shooting started.
Gardner, 61, told Van Susteren, that she saw Flanagan from the corner of her eye as he approached.
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Police recovered disturbing items from the car of Vester Flanagan, who shot and killed a news crew in Roanoke, Va. Some of those items include additional ammo and a to-do list, which may suggest he planned to make a getaway rather than kill himself.
"I saw movement. And then gunfire. Lots and lots of gunfire," she said. "From that point, it was very chaotic."
Her immediate reaction, she said, was to play dead.
"I just fell to the ground as though I had been hit and went into fetal position," she said. "He did come back up and shot me in the back."
"Had I continued to stand, I would not be here talking to you," she said.
As he moved about, Flanagan was "very silent," Gardner recounted.
"I was waiting for him to shoot me in the head. When he shot me in the back, I said, 'I'm going to be paralyzed,' and then I waited," she said. "It goes real quick. Your world goes in front of you, and it did, real fast, and I said, 'I'm ready.'"
Following a police chase, Flanagan, 41, killed himself five hours after the attack at Smith Mountain Lake, southeast of Roanoke.
Gardner said she thought she would be paralyzed. However, the bullet did not go through her spine. Instead, doctors removed a kidney from Gardner and part of her colon. She was released from the hospital in September.
"I'm happy to be here," she said, while also mourning Parker and Ward.
"Why save me and take them?" she said. "But obviously there's a purpose — and by golly I will fulfill it."
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