Vicki Gardner, the woman who survived the on-air shooting in Virgina where two journalists were killed, has revealed details about the shooting, saying that at the time, she thought the gunman was going to execute her.
In her first public statement since the shooting, the Smith Mountain Lake Chamber of Commerce executive said that she was lying on the ground preparing for gunman Vester Lee Flanagan to kill her after WDBJ-TV employees Alison Parker and Adam Ward were shot dead on Aug. 26, according to the New York Daily News.
"I didn't know where he was," Gardner, 62, told "On the Record w/Greta Van Susteren" in an interview Tuesday night. "I saw movement and then, gunfire. Lots and lots of gunfire. From that point, it was very chaotic."
When Flanagan first opened fire, Gardner decided to play dead.
"The only thing I could think of was 'play dead,' " Gardner said. "I just fell to the ground as though I had been hit."
At one point, Gardner was stuck in the back and assumed that she would get shot in the head next, thus she decided to continue playing dead in a gambit to avoid the fatal shot, according to The Guardian.
"I knew, the next shot, he was just gonna shoot me in the head, because that was what he was doing," she said. "When he shot me in the back, I said, 'I'm gonna be paralyzed, darn'. And then, I waited. They say the world goes in front of you, and it did real fast, and I said, 'I'm ready, I'm ready.'"
"Had I continued to stand, I would not be here talking to you," she continued.
Gardner wasn't paralyzed but did need to have to remove a kidney and part of her colon. She was released from a Roanoke hospital on Sept. 7.
"I'm happy to be here," she said.
