Gardena Shooting Victim And Mom Talk About His Frightening Ordeal

Pat Harvey Exclusive: Gardena Shooting Victim And Mom Talk About His Frightening Ordeal

January 21, 2011 10:01 PM

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One of the victims in the Gardena High School shooting talks exclusively to CBS2′s Pat Harvey. (credit: CBS)

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — CBS 2 Anchor Pat Harvey spoke exclusively Friday evening with one of the students shot and wounded Tuesday at Gardena High.
She spoke with Trendell, a 15-year-old boy, and his mother, Anita about his ordeal. And about her plans to file suit against the LAUSD.
Trendell was shot in the neck. The bullet went through him and then hit a 15-year-old girl in the head. That student remains in critical condition.
Trendell considers himself lucky.
He told Harvey the whole incident happened “like it was slow motion”, he didn’t even realize he’d been shot. “I was in a lot of pain. But I didn’t know I was shot. I just felt tremendous pain in my back. And then I felt all this blood.”
“I didn’t know what to think,” he says, matter-of-fact, from a bed in his home. “I heard a loud boom and I saw smoke. I thought it could have been a bomb, or an earthquake. All I knew I was down and there was a lot of blood.”
Trendell was taken to the nurse’s office while waiting for an ambulance. He also revealed he was left alone for what “felt like a half hour. I thought I was going to pass out.”
Then panic set in. While waiting for help to arrive, Trendell was sure he was a goner. “I thought I was going to die. My heart was beating so fast.”
Trendell told Harvey that his class emptied out. Including the student who allegedly bought the weapon in his backpack. “He was shocked himself.”
In her exclusive interview, Trendell’s mother told Pat Harvey why she has retained the Cochran firm to represent her son.
While school officials say it is routine to scan students at random for weapons, Trendell maintained to Harvey, “The school needs more security. They never search you. That doesn’t happen.”