Pentecostal Pastor’s Daughter Survives Oregon Shooting Thanks to Another’s Selfless Act
The pastor says his daughter was frozen to the floor, covered by the body and blood of one of her classmates.
And as his daughter Lacey lay underneath Treven Anspach, her father says she only knew one thing: Pray.
Shooter Chris Harper-Mercer then “walked over my daughter and shot the next one,” Pastor Randy Scroggins tells the LA Times.
“Moms and dads, you can take your kids to soccer games, you can take them to baseball games, you can keep ’em out of church, but I am telling you, there is nothing going to take the place of teaching your children how to pray,” Scroggins says.
The evidence is obvious as Scroggins recounts his daughter’s story:
His daughter Lacey is studying nursing at Umpqua Community College in Oregon.
Violence broke out on the UCC campus last week when Harper-Mercer brutally killed nine people, injuring many more.
When Harper-Mercer entered her classroom, Scroggins says Lacey heard a gunshot.
“‘And his body dropped to the ground, and I realized this is not a drill any longer,'” Scroggins says his daughter told him.
And then Harper-Mercer began asking questions: “You, in the orange shirt. Stand up. What religion are you? Are you a Christian?” Scroggins says his daughter recalls. “‘I heard, Daddy, I heard a pop, and then the thud of a body that just hit the ground.'”
As people fell left and right, Lacey’s classmate from high school chose to protect her.
Lacey survived because student Anspach rolled over on top of her as his last dying act.
“We know beyond a shadow of any doubt that his blood on my daughter convinced the shooter that she was dead. That young man, whose name is Treven Anspach … saved our daughter’s life,” Scroggins says.
