x
Breaking News
More () »

'I think that you are truly an awful person': Teachers, former students give victim impact statements on Day 2 of Freeman shooter hearing

Two teachers, a current and a former student issued their victim impact statements on Tuesday during a hearing for the Freeman High School shooting.

SPOKANE, Wash. — Editor's note: To ensure the anonymity of the victims, they will be identified with their initials.

On the second day of the victim impact statements hearing in the trial of the Freeman High School shooter, three of the people most connected to the tragedy got the chance to express how the shooting has forever impacted their lives.

A statement from the best friend of one of the injured victims was given by a victim advocate, while a Freeman High teacher who aided one of the victims and a student who was in the hallway during the shooting gave their statements in person.

Angela Fry was a teacher on the second floor of Freeman High School on Sept. 13, 2017. While it has been more than four years since the tragedy, Fry said the memory of what happened has not faded.

"I hear the shots, and I see the students rushing into my room to get to safety. I see [J.G.] bleeding in the back of my room as we realize she had been shot," she recalled. "I remember telling the other students to talk to her, to keep her awake while I try to wrap her arm with my vest because I did not have anything else to use to stop the bleeding."

Fry said she can still see J.G. lying on the floor every day when she walks into her classroom.

M.R. was in the hallway at Freeman High School when the shooting happened. She called the shooter's actions "pathetic" and said he will never get to experience the joys of life that most people take for granted.

"No matter how bad my day goes, I get to go home and sleep in my own bed at the end of the day," she said. "I get to go to college and look forward to all of the joys of my future. I get to hug my family and friends. You do not get to experience these things."

As many people have done over the last two days, M.R. asked the judge to give the shooter the maximum sentence. Her father J.R., a teacher at Freeman Middle School, also made the same request.

"Mr. Sharpe has shown no remorse for the evil, cowardly acts that he committed on the innocent students, families, and the Freeman community," J.R. said. "I know that he shows no remorse because he and his family drug this out for four and a half years."

While separated from his young daughter, J.R. was forced to protect his own class of sixth-graders from the shooter.

"No 15-year-old should find out how fast they can run because one of their cowardly classmates is shooting at them," he said.

J.R. said the new generation of students ask him about what happened on that horrific day in 2017. Some of the students have heard details from older siblings, but he wanted the shooter to know something.

"The thing that strikes me when they ask me who did it? They know what happened, but they have no idea who did it," he said. "They don't even know your name, and I don't tell them."

A victim impact statement from K.S., the best friend of one of the victims injured in the shooting, was also read in court on Tuesday morning. In her statement, K.S. recalled what she remembered from the day of the shooting.

"I could tell you everything that happened that day bit by bit in fine detail," she wrote in her statement. "I could tell you about how I was afraid that someone was going to burst into the classroom that I was hiding in and try to shoot me. Or how I was hearing that my best friend was shot and dead."

K.S. referred to the aforementioned victim as her soul sister and described how difficult it was to watch her struggle with the after-effects of the shooting.

Early on in her statement, K.S. addressed Sharpe directly.

"How could you? How could you go into our school and decide to kill people? Excuse me, not people. Kids. I know people can be cruel, but there is always a way out. Always. But you took the worst way you could possibly take," she wrote in her statement. "You tried to rip apart our Freeman family, but you didn’t. You didn’t. To be honest, I think that you are truly an awful person. I hope that every single day you think about what you’ve done."

Before You Leave, Check This Out