Feb 17, 2008 5:40 pm US/Central
NIU Survivor Describes Surreal Shooting
Harold Ng Says Experience Has Changed His Outlook On Life
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Harold Ng, a communications major at NIU, was injured during the Feb. 14 shooting that killed five of his classmates.
CBS
One survivor of the deadly Northern Illinois University shooting spree spent this Sunday in church, grateful to be alive.
The wounded student spoke with CBS 2's Katie McCall about the shooting, and his new outlook on life.
There are prayers of thanksgiving at the Chinese Christian Union Church in Highland Park Sunday night. NIU junior Harold Ng was one of the first babies baptized there, and on Thursday he survived the shooting that claimed the lives of five of his classmates.
"Right now I'm just taking one step at a time, glad that I'm safe," Ng said.
Ng says at first he was not sure why the gunman, Steven Kazmierczak was in the auditorium.
"There were two people on the stage and it seemed unordinary," Ng said.
But within seconds, he was running from gunfire.
"I remember seeing the teacher disappearing and seeing a shotgun," he said.
Ng reached a nearby dorm before he realized he'd been hit; the fact that there had been a shooting still seemed impossible.
"I went a little bit like that and I found my hands were covered in blood," he said.
Aware of his own mortality and just how fragile life can be, Ng he says he will approach the rest of his life a little differently now.
"I think it made me stronger as a person and life is short and that you have certain opportunities that you get," he said.
His first order of business remains the same as it was before the shooting -- to complete his degree in communications. It's an obligation, he says, because not everyone gets to do that – certainly not his fellow students who were so senselessly killed.
"As a school, as a body, the school we'll make it through together," Ng said.
Ng says even though classes don't resume until February 25, he is ready to get back to campus life and to his friends. He hopes to go back to NIU by Wednesday.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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