On-air shooting survivor makes 1st public comments

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.

“I just saw movement and then gunfire”.

“I just fell to the ground as though I had been hit and went into fetal position”.

Gardner said she concentrated so hard on being still so he wouldn’t shoot her again.

She said that Flanagan was “very silent” during the shooting and did not speak.

“When he shot me in the back, I said, ‘I’m going to be paralyzed, darn.’ And then I waited”, Garnder recalled. “I realized it was quiet and everybody was down, and I didn’t know where he was”, Gardner said.

After the shooting, Gardner, executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake Chamber of Commerce, was taken to the hospital where she underwent emergency surgery.

Vicki Gardner was being interviewed by WDBJ7 reporter Alison Parker when twisted gunman Vester Flanagan calmly walked up to the trio and opened fire.

Mrs Gardner said her first thought was to play dead in the hope she would be spared.

He fatally shot himself in the head after a police chase. And I said, “I’m ready, I’m ready,”‘ Gardner told Fox. Doctors removed one of her kidneys and part of her colon.

“But obviously there’s a objective – and by golly I will fulfil it”, she said.

Gardner said she has watched the horrific video, so her mind would be “at peace” that what she thought happened actually did.

“My heart just goes out to Alison and Adam”, she said.