Friday, April 20, 2007
Derek O'Dell: Son's wound 'already healing up a bit'
Derek O'Dell
- Age: 20
- Class: Sophomore
- Major: Biological sciences
- Hometown: Roanoke County
- High school: Cave Spring
- Parents: Roger O'Dell and Joanne Hawley
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Shot in the arm Monday while in his Norris Hall German class, Derek O'Dell was recovering well Thursday at his parents' home in Roanoke County.
"He's doing OK psychologically and physically," said Roger O'Dell, Derek's father.
"It looks like the bullet hole wound is already healing up a little bit. The bleeding has mostly stopped, so that's good too. He wasn't hit in a major artery or nerves."
Joanne Hawley, Derek's mother, said, "We're so grateful just to have him here with us. He's a special kid."
A local chess champion who was on the dean's list at Virginia Tech last year as a freshman, O'Dell estimated that 10 to 15 of the students in his class of 20 were shot.
He recalls Cho as a gunman in a black leather jacket who came into the classroom shooting and didn't leave until everything was very still.
"He didn't say anything; that's the weirdest part," O'Dell said. "No screaming, no yelling. He just shot."
The 2005 graduate of Cave Spring High School said that when he heard the first shots he thought they were workers' hammers banging in a nearby room. When Cho came into view, O'Dell said, he was mechanically firing and reloading his gun.
"He was very quick in reloading, so it looked like he'd been trained."
O'Dell said he crouched under his desk while some of his classmates around him were shot. O'Dell didn't realize he had been wounded until after Cho had left the classroom. That's when he wrapped his belt around the wound in his upper right arm as a tourniquet. That worked well for O'Dell to help other students hold the classroom's wooden door shut when Cho tried to re-enter a few minutes later. "He got the door open maybe an inch or two and then we were able to shut it again."
Cho then shot at the door and walked elsewhere in Norris Hall, where he killed himself.
Before the shooting, Derek had planned to participate in the Relay for Life walk to raise money for cancer research scheduled today in Blacksburg.
He's especially committed to the cause because his father is a recovered cancer patient. But Derek's mom thinks he shouldn't take part in the event.
"I'm telling him he should find a stand-in," she said.
-- Rob Johnson
