2-16-18-ERNIE ALLEN’S-TOP STORY-

A teenage girl witnessed her best friend being shot dead right next to her during the Parkland School Shooting.

Samantha Grady, a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, suffered injuries in the Florida school shooting on Wednesday, and recounted the horrific scene during a live broadcast on the “Today” show.

On Thursday, she told Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb that she was laying beside her best friend as she was shot during the rampage.

When asked how her friend was doing, Grady replied: “Unfortunately she didn’t make it.” 

The teen used a book as a shield during the shooting and it was her best friend, she says, who gave her the idea.

“We were already situated by the bookshelf. She was like, ‘Grab a book, grab a book,’ and so I took a book. It was a tiny book, but I took a book and I held it up. I believe, maybe, the book kind of deterred some of the bullets, so it didn’t hit me so badly,” she said. “She was the one who gave me the idea. She definitely helped me a lot.”

Grady said they were in a locked classroom when the shooter, identified as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, fired rounds into the glass of the door with his semiautomatic rifle to gain access to the room.

After fleeing the school, Grady was treated by paramedics on the scene. Hospital staff advised her to talk about the shooting as much as possible, in an effort to “get it out your brain.”

“So whenever the opportunity came, whenever someone asked, I freely talked about it,” she said. “Because I don’t want nightmares.”

EURweb.com