Slain teen in Kentucky school shooting tried calling mother amid chaos
The 15-year-old student killed at her western Kentucky high school this week tried calling her mother as a classmate unleashed havoc.
“She called me and all I could hear was voices, chaos in the background,” a distraught Secret Holt told CBS affiliate WKRN. “She couldn’t say anything and I tried to call her name over and over and over and she never responded.”
Her daughter, Bailey Holt, was one of two students killed when a 15-year-old gunman fired into a crowded area of Marshall County High School in Benton before classes Tuesday.
The other victim, Preston Cope, died at a hospital later Tuesday, and more than a dozen other students suffered gunshot wounds, officials said.
One of the wounded was Bailey’s boyfriend, her parents told the Nashville-based WKRN, who was shot in the face but is expected to survive. It was the 11th school shooting in 23 days.
Her father, Jasen, told the news channel he dropped Bailey off before 8 a.m. Tuesday, just like any other day.
But within minutes Secret started hearing reports of a shooting at her daughter’s high school.
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“We tried and tried to call her and she didn’t answer,” Secret told WKRN. “It’s not like her not to answer or text back.”
That’s when she got the call from her oldest daughter, but didn’t hear Bailey’s voice.
“We rushed to the high school, and they wouldn’t let us get through,” she said.
The frantic parents went to an area where students were being bused to safety — hoping for a sight of Bailey.
“We waited and waited for her to get off the buses and she never did,” she told WKRN.
They were taken to a cop car and brought to the nearby fire department, where they found out Bailey had been killed.
The gunman, whose identity hasn’t been released, was charged in juvenile court on two counts of murder and 12 of assault.
A hearing is set to have him charged as an adult, prosecutors said Wednesday.
A tearful Secret isn’t sure she’s ready to face off with her daughter’s killer.
“I don’t know if I can go to court to see him,” she said. “But I want him to pay for everything he’s done.
“But I want to pray for him too cause I know he’s having a hard time, too.”
Jasen, Bailey’s father, added: “He still took our baby.”
RELATED: Kentucky school shooting kills 2, wounds multiple students
The slain teen’s parents said she was a warm, friendly person who planned to become a nurse.
Investigators are still trying to determine why the gunman shot up the school.
“Whatever that kid had going through his mind, I don’t know,” Secret told WKRN. “But if he needed a friend I know she would’ve been a friend to him and talked to him about anything he needed, because that’s just the kind of person she was.”
