It was just yesterday that a 15-year-old student took a gun to Marshall County High School in Kentucky, killing two of his classmates (Bailey Nicole Holt and Preston Ryan Cope, both age 15) and injuring 18 more.
The pain, grief, and confusion in the lives of everyone even remotely connected to the school right now must be overwhelming, yet one student who arrived at the school just after the shooting spree had started is already talking about forgiveness.
“CBS This Morning” hosts Gayle King, Norah O’Donnell, and John Dickerson interviewed Tristan Cline, a junior at Marshall County, who described the scene: “I saw everybody rush out in a panic. I mean, it had to have been 400 kids, and I started to flee in my car and that’s when I saw my friend Danny. He was laying in the field. He had been shot and he was surrounded by some teachers, and they didn’t know what to do, so I put him in my car as fast as I could.”
Tristan got Danny to the hospital where he received treatment for being shot in the shoulder.
Despite the fear and loss of life, Tristan is already looking toward the future and even going so far as to discuss forgiving the perpetrator. He said, “God is love and in perfect love, there is no fear. So we’ll get over it eventually. It just takes time. He was a person, too.”
Gayle King later commented, “I’m always surprised when something this tragic happens, and in the beginning, people can start thinking about forgiveness during the process of their grief.”
John Dickerson then observed, “Grace is an amazing thing.”
