Cady Stribling
News Editor
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Editor’s Note: One of the students quoted in this story wishes to remain anonymous given the nature of the story. The News respects the source’s wishes and refers to them as ‘the student’.
It’s been three years since the deadly shooting at Marshall County High School and two students sat down with The News to share what that cold January day was like from the inside of the Commons.
The morning began like any other as students flooded into the commons area, waiting in their friend groups for the day to begin. The student said it was 7:55 a.m. and classes were to begin in five minutes when he heard a boom.
“This was a boom like a balloon popping in the air,” the student said. “I didn’t think much at first, and then I heard a second one and everyone got quiet for a split second in the air. Then I saw this kid named Gabe (Gabriel Parker), who I had an English class with, in pistol stance.”
At that moment, the student said he knew what was happening. He jumped over a booth, dropped his phone and hurried out the door.
“It was like a herd of cattle swarmed up onto the right and left doors,” the student said. “I ran at the fastest speed I think I’ve ever accomplished. I made it to the forest by the time I could gather what had happened.”
This past summer, Parker received two life sentences for the murders of Preston Cope and Bailey Holt and 70 years for 14 assault charges.
The anonymous student said although Parker’s sentence fit the crime at face value, he doesn’t necessarily feel better that Parker is in prison.
“I don’t think that this person’s life should be over because of this large mistake, but it isn’t a victimless crime,” the student said. “I do not feel better about putting him in prison… [but] I do feel he should be in prison for the betterment of the victims’… lives, [which] he changed due to his actions.”
The student said he now constantly thinks about routes of escape in case of a fire, who he might have to take down if there were another shooting or what would happen to his friends and family if he died today.
“I think about the families of those injured and those who lost their children,” the student said. “Why them? I do think every once and a while about the shooting: How I could have stopped it? What should I have done differently? Would some compassion and care towards Gabe Parker in the past stop him from committing the actions he did? How do we stop the next Gabe Parker in the future?”
Gabe Steffen, freshman musical theater major, was a high school sophomore at the time of the shooting. Sitting in the commons area with his friends Jared and Kelsey, the three were hanging out and waiting for school to begin when they heard gunshots.
“All of a sudden, I just hear ‘bang,’” Steffen said. “Then I look over and the shooter is right here.”
Steffen said Parker was roughly three feet away from him and his friends. Steffen said he immediately got up and ran across the school to the weightlifting room where he found his friend Kelsey.
“I called my mom and was like, ‘Mom, you’re never going to believe what just happened,’ because I was frantic, adrenaline was everywhere,” Steffen said. “Eventually [administrators] said ‘you guys need to get into the weightlifting room’ because right then we were all just congregated outside.”
Steffen said once he was in the weightlifting room, he helped a student who had sprained her foot, telling her he was sure the ambulance
was on its way and that everything would be okay.
“I was just trying to check on everyone because, you know, we just went through a shooting,” Steffen said. “And as I was checking on people, I was about to go up to a teacher… and I was about to ask him if everyone was okay, ‘Do you know if there are any casualties?’ just trying to get any information that I possibly could, and right as I was about to ask him my question, I look to my left and the shooter was standing right there.”
Steffen said Parker thankfully did not have the gun in the weightlifting room. Later, Steffen learned from sources that after Parker opened fire, he ran out a door that led to the band room, threw the gun down, then went to the weightlifting room in an attempt to blend in with the other students.
“I saw him and I was like, ‘Okay, here’s what I need to do,’” Steffen said. “I tugged on the teacher’s shirt, trying to be all nonchalant, and said ‘you need to come outside with me right now.’”
When they went outside, Steffen informed the teacher that the shooter was in the weightlifting room. Other students were with him and confirmed that they had also seen Parker in the weightlifting room.
The teacher asked Steffen if he knew the shooters’ name and what he looked like, and Steffen was able to identify him since they had had a computer class together the previous year. As the teacher alerted authorities, Steffen left through a gap in the fence outside the weightlifting room and left with an administrator in her car.
“Between the time I had told [the teacher] and the time that [Parker] had gotten arrested, I’m going to say maybe it was about five minutes [that had passed], not even that probably,” Steffen said. “A bunch of people watched him get arrested, but I didn’t watch him get arrested because I was in the car on the way up to the faculty building at the top of the hill.”
Since the shooting, Steffan was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. He was asked to testify against Parker in court but did not have to because Parker later pleaded guilty.
“I used to think a hitman was after me 24/7 because I thought, ‘oh my god, his family is going to find out I’m the one who ratted him out and I’m going to get hitmanned’ or something,” Steffen said. “Now that I think about it, it was a very—not stupid [thought]—but it was my mind processing things.”
Steffen said he has mixed emotions over Parker’s sentencing.
“I’m so happy that he got life, but the only thing that I don’t like is the fact that he got the possibility of parole,” Steffen said. “Now, knowing him and knowing the families, they’re not going to let… him get (out) on parole. I don’t think he’s going to get out anytime soon but I wish he would’ve just gotten life without the possibility of parole.”
After years of therapy and after the sentencing, Steffen said he felt a little safer because he knew no one would go after him.
“You know, my friend died during the shooting, my friend Bailey,” Steffen said. “I just want her legacy to live on. That’s all I want.”
Murray State offers free and confidential mental health services for students. The Counseling Center is located in Oakley Applied Science and will offer primarily remote services this spring. Call them at (270) 809-6851, email them at [email protected] or visit their websites at murraystate.edu/CounselingCenter.
The Psychological Center is located in Wells Hall and will be offering primarily in-person sessions this spring. You can reach them at (270) 809-2504 or visit their website at murraystate.edu/PsychologicalCenter.
Contact Murray State Police at (270) 809-2222 or call 911 if you are off campus. You can also call the 24-hour crisis hotline at (800) 592-3980 or contact the Crisis Text Line at 741-741.
