Kentucky High School Shooting: Hero Describes Rushing Wounded Friend to Hospital After 2 Teens Killed

Tristan Cline pulled up to Marshall County High as a 15-year-old boy allegedly opened fire.

A witness to the shooting in a Kentucky high school Tuesday says he had just arrived as the mayhem unfolded and was able to rush one of his friends to the hospital.

Tristan Cline told CBS This Morning he got to Marshall County High during the shooting and was about to pull away in fear when a familiar face made him pause.

"I started to flee in my car and that's when I saw my friend Danny, he was lying in the field," Tristan said. "He'd been shot."

Tristan said Danny was surrounded by teachers who "didn't know what to do."

"So I put him in my car as fast as I could," Tristan recalled. But hidden below his heroic actions, Tristan said there was fear.

"I was scared," he said. "I didn't know if the shooter was behind us. I didn't really know where anything was going on, I just saw so many kids running." 

As the community comes to grips with the the shooting, which authorities say was carried out by a 15-year-old male student who killed two teens and shot around 16 others. Tristan said what the people of Benton, Ky., need most now is "time."

"We need each other," he said. "There's a lot of people this affected. Everybody in our county is feeling this. I was called probably 30 times before nine o'clock that morning checking if I was OK, and that was just close friends and relatives. Everybody wants to know what's going on and just help each other through it."

The two students who lost their lives in the shooting were identified by State Police Commissioner Richard W. Sanders as Bailey Holt and Preston Cope, both 15.

Injured victims ranged in age from 14 to 18 years old.

The first shots were fired at 7:57 a.m., according to authorities. The first 911 call was received at 7:59 a.m.

The suspect was taken into custody at the school by the Marshall County Sheriff Department, who reported he used a handgun in the shooting.

Police did not release the suspect's name. 

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