Bailey Holt, one of the teens killed in Tuesday’s school shooting in Kentucky, called her parents after she had been shot, but had lost the ability to talk.
‘She called me and all I could hear was voices, chaos in the background,’ her mother Secret Holt told WKRN on Wednesday.
‘She couldn’t say anything and I tried to call her name over and over and over and she never responded,’ he mother added.
Mrs Holt soon learned that there had been a shooting at her eldest daughter’s school, Marshall County High, so she ran to where the kids were being bused to safety.
Secret and Jason Holt lost their 15-year-old daughter Bailey in Tuesday’s shooting at Marshall County High School in Kentucky
Bailey’s proud parents described her as ‘a perfect angel’ who wanted to be a nurse
She says she knew something was wrong when she didn’t see the 15-year-old on any of the buses.
‘We waited and waited for her to get off the buses and she never did,’ Mrs Holt said. ‘The principal at North Marshal came and got me, and took us outside and we got in a cop car and they took us to the fire department and told us what had happened.’
Bailey was one of two students killed by the as-yet-unnamed shooter, who is in policy custody.
Classmate Preston Cope, also 15, died after being shot in the head.
Bailey’s boyfriend was among the 14 others shot in the shooting, but he is expected to make a recovery.
Bailey’s father Jason remembers dropping his daughter off at school the morning she was shot.
The sophomore love music, art and helping others, her family said. Her mother Secret pictured on the left and father Jason pictured on the right
‘I took her to school and gave her a kiss and told her I love and she got out of the car,’ he said.
Bailey’s parents described her to the Today show as ‘the best kid ever’.
‘She was an angel here on earth,’ her dad said. ‘She was a perfect angel.’
‘She loved everyone. She never had a harsh word to say about anything or anyone,’ her mother said.
The sophomore love music, art and helping others, her family said.
‘Even though she was 15, she had already decided her career was going to be a labor and delivery nurse,’ Mrs Holt said. ‘She helped others … she was just so kind-hearted and the most amazing kid anybody could ever ask for. Her smile could light up the room.’
Police were seen leading a teen, believed to be the 15-year-old shooter, away in handcuffs after he opened fire on classmates at Marshall County High School in Kentucky on Tuesday morning. The shooter (second right) still has not been identified
Bailey Holt (left), 15, was one of two students who suffered fatal gunshot wounds in Tuesday’s shooting rampage at a Kentucky high school. Preston Cope (right), also 15, was rushed to hospital but died of a gunshot wound to the head
What’s so tragic about her death is that Bailey would have been a friend to the killer, her mother said.
‘Whatever that kid had going through his mind, I don’t know,’ she said. ‘But if he needed a friend, I know she would’ve been a friend to him and talked to him about anything he needed, because that’s just the kind of person she was.’
No motive for the shooting has been released, but the step-sister of the shooter took to Facebook, claiming he was ‘not a monster’ and that he doesn’t deserve the death penalty. She added that he was bullied and his parents had recently divorced.
Mrs Holt says she’s praying for the victims, as well as the shooter and his family.
Students and community members hold hands in prayer before classes at Paducah Tilghman High School in Paducah on Wednesday for the victims of the nearby shooting
Students are seen above attending the prayer vigil at Life in Christ Church in Marion
‘I don’t know if I can go to court and see him. I just don’t know if I can, but I want him to pay for everything he’s done,’ she said. ‘I also want to pray for him, too, because I know he’s probably having a hard time too, but he took our baby. He still took my baby from me.’
The case against the suspect will begin in juvenile court, which is closed to the public and the records sealed under Kentucky law. Prosecutors will request a judge move it to adult court, at which point the details will no longer be secret. A grand jury is scheduled to meet on February 13.
The teen is being held at a regional juvenile jail in Paducah – about a half-hour away from the high school.
In addition to the two students killed in Tuesday’s shooting, 14 others were shot and four children were injured as they ran from the gunfire.
Five students remained in critical condition in various hospitals late Tuesday.
The school was placed in lock down and the entrances to the school were blocked off by first responders
Terrified students were later reunited with their parents following the deadly shooting