NIU...My bro goes there...i have never been more scard

My brother goes to NIU and so do alot of my friends. When we got the phone call from him, I have never been more scared in my life. He was in the building conjoined with Cole Hall and only a hallway or two away from the shootings. My mom stayed on the phone with him until he reached safety doing the play by plays of "where are you? what do you see? What do you hear? can you block the door? can you lock the door?" and then there was this sudden commotion in the background and the entire time all we could think of was she could have been listening to her son get shot to death. She could have heard him die. I get all choked up everytime I think about. I alwasy knew a school shooting would hppen around here, but I never thought it would ever hit so close to home. I think the worst feeling was knowing there was nothing we could do. We were here and he was there and all we could do was listen. There isn't a second that goes by that I don't thank God that he is alive. Although he was not in the same room, the gunman could have easily gotten to his class or anyone elses too.I feel so guilty saying this, but every time the names are read of those who where killed the first thing I do is thank God that wasn't my brother. One of my best friends's roommate sadly was in the room and was shot in the arms and legs, and again I'm sad for him, but yet so happy that wasn't my brother.