A survivor who came across an armed man thought that it was an exercise

CHESAPEAKE, Va. – Even after the shooting, Ned Carlstrom thought the shootout at Virginia Beach's government building, where he was working, was a meticulously organized exercise for city employees. He met the shooter three times – and survived.

The reality settled when Carlstrom looked out and saw a team of police point guns toward the building while they were dragging a fatally wounded contractor, leaving behind a pool of blood.

Carlstrom said he met the gunman, DeWayne Craddock, twice during the rampage, but did not exchange his words on a resounding fire alarm. He can only guess why Craddock killed 12 people but spared him, not even showing him a gun.

He said that before the shooting, he often had light talk with Craddock, a genius engineer with a soft voice, as they entered the office from the parking lot. He wonders if that's why Craddock lets him live.

"I guess it's a feeling of luck," Carlstrom told The Associated Press on Sunday during an interview at his home in Chesapeake, Va.

Carlstrom, who works in the billing section of the city's water department, was sitting at his desk in an office on the second floor when the shooting started on Friday afternoon. He heard clacking noises and colleagues screaming. Carlstrom is responsible for monitoring the safety of stairwells during exercises. That's why he and his colleague, Terry Inman, began developing an evacuation plan for an active shooting exercise.

"We did not think it was real," he said.

He said he crossed a turning point towards a stairwell and found himself face to face with Craddock, who was armed with a handgun equipped with a suppressor. noise.

"He had the gun at his side. He was so close to me, he swung his arm, he almost hit me with the rifle. That's how close we are, "said Carlstrom. "But he never raised the weapon on me. He looked up at me briefly.

Carlstrom said he thought Craddock was pretending to be a training shooter because the "unpleasant gun" seemed to be an accessory, and he did not point it out.

"By the way, he passed me, he barely glanced at me and never broke his pace," he said. "I've thought that he was playing the role of the villain, that of someone who is pursuing a villain."

About five minutes later, Carlstrom returned to his office to retrieve his phone. Craddock entered the room.

Inman, a city utility clerk, said he turned around and saw Craddock standing with a gun. Inman said that he had told her, "DeWayne, stop!

"He turned around and looked me straight in the eyes, but he did not see me. He looked me straight in the eye and he did not see me standing because he did not lift the revolver. He did not even suggest that he had seen anyone there, "Inman told AP Sunday. "For me, it was the Holy Spirit who inflicted something on this man to the point where he did not see Terry Inman standing there."

After Craddock had left the room, Carlstrom and Inman heard the shots again. They think their friend and colleague, Ryan Keith Cox, was killed.

Carlstrom met Craddock a third time, when the gunman approached the window of an office where hid Carlstrom and other colleagues.

"We had the door locked, but he could have pierced it or gone through it," Carlstrom said.

Carlstrom never saw Craddock shoot with a gun, but he saw the carnage when he and others were saved.

"It was when I had to step over the body of one of my colleagues in the stairwell," he said.

Carlstrom said that he feels lucky to be alive, but he is saddened by the loss of his friends, including Cox. He said that Cox was trying to gather his colleagues and put them in a safe place when he was shot.

"I do not think it's going to go away until we get back to work and we do not have those people anymore," he said.

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