Story of Survival: Elizabeth Sumrall of Central Survives Colorado Massacre

Story of Survival: Elizabeth Sumrall of Central Survives Colorado Massacre

Harrowing Story of Central Girl Who Is Amazed by God’s Mercy

by Woody Jenkins, Editor

CENTRAL — “The tear gas canister was thrown across the floor, and we could see the trail of smoke after it.  It looked like a joke or part of the movie.  Then boom, boom, boom, like firecrackers.  But it wasn’t.  Bullets were whizzing around us.  My best friend, Bonnie Kate Pourciau, threw me to the floor, and we began to pray.”

Elizabeth Sumrall, 23, of Central arrived home yesterday after surviving the largest massacre in modern American history at a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado.

For Elizabeth and her friend Bonnie Kate, it was an unusual twist of circumstance that brought them to that theatre at midnight Thursday when 12 fellow moviegoers were murdered.  The two former homeschoolers were literally “just passing through” on a 10-day vacation trip from Seattle, where Elizabeth had been working, to Baton Rouge.

Elizabeth, whose parents are Randy and Julie Sumrall of Comite Hills, graduated from home school in 2007.  Her parents have been leaders of Christian Home Education Fellowship (CHEF).

In January, Elizabeth went to work as a marketing and social media consultant for a company in Seattle that produces Christian history teaching materials.  Her work was completed this month.

Bonnie Kate Pourciau of Baton Rouge, who is 18 and graduated from home school last year, flew to Seattle to help Elizabeth drive back to Baton Rouge.  By the time they reached Aurora, they were on the last leg of the trip home, having already seen Mt. Rushmore, Glacier National Park, and the Grand Tetons.

Thursday night, they stopped over in Aurora.  At the front desk of their hotel, someone mentioned the Batman premiere at midnight.  Elizabeth said she thought it would be impossible to get tickets, but the girl at the front desk said there were still tickets available.

Between 8 and 9 p.m., they booked tickets to Batman on-line.  They arrived at the theatre 15 or 20 minutes early, and it was packed.

The girls stopped at the first row and almost sat down.  Then they decided to head toward the back of the theatre.  It was a fateful decision.

After they were seated, commercials and previews came on the screen, and the two girls were looking at photos on their phones.  It was a rowdy crowd.  Elizabeth texted her brother Stephen that they were in the movie waiting for Batman to start.

That message could have been the last she would ever send.

When the smoke bomb went off, no one seemed alarmed, Elizabeth said.  Shots were being fired on the screen, and this seemed like part of the performance.

But when the shooter began to fire, it soon became clear that this was for real.  “People started to scream and freak out,” she said.

“Down on the floor, we were praying.  My throat began to burn from the tear gas.  The smoke must have been intended to create confusion and throw people off,” she said.

No one attempted to rush the gunman. “I never saw the shooter.  We were on the floor, trying to avoid the bullets,” she said.

“Apparently, he shot a lot of people in the front row.”

Elizabeth said that, after firing many shots, the gunman apparently left the room to get more ammunition.

While the gunman, James Holmes, was reloading, Elizabeth and Bonnie Kate joined scores of others in making a rush for the door.

“We got up, and I gave Bonnie Kate a push.  We were swept up in the crowd.  It was a mob of people with crazy pushing.”

“Bonnie Kate couldn’t keep up.  When we got to the bottom entrance, a young man started supporting her.  She was hopping on one leg.  I asked her if she was okay.  She said, ‘No, I’ve been shot!’  She was bleeding from the leg.”

The young man who helped Bonnie Kate and Elizabeth all the way outside the theatre was Chris Lakota, a young Native American.

“We were going to walk to the car, but Bonnie Kate said, ‘I can’t do this!’  We stopped, and people began to gather.  An ER nurse stopped to help Bonnie Kate.  People kept coming out, and we had to move further out.  We tried to get to the car but the police wouldn’t let us.  We were waiting a long time, maybe 30 or 40 minutes.  Bonnie Kate was losing blood and could have died but a young man, Eric Wilkinson, stopped to help.  He is a National Guardsman.”

“With all the hurt people, there weren’t enough ambulances.  Finally, a policeman decided to take Bonnie Kate to the hospital himself.  The victims were taken to many different hospitals.  Bonnie Kate was taken to the University of Colorado Medical Center.  It took me another hour and a half to get to the hospital.  We left our cell phones in the theatre.  I used a hospital phone to call my parents, but we could only speak briefly.”

“Parents and siblings of the victims were arriving at the waiting room.  The people in the hospital were wonderful to me.  They hugged me and supported me.  A father and mother whose son had been shot held my hands. We cried together.  It was a precious time.  They were very sweet.”

“It wasn’t until 3 or 4 a.m. that I got to see Bonnie Kate.  She was not in a room but in a hallway.  Someone had given her a phone, and her mother was on the other end reading the Bible to her.”

“Bonnie Kate was in a lot of pain.  They had only given her one pain killer.  I held her hand, and we prayed.

Lying near Bonnie Kate in the hallway was a young man who had been sitting in the third row.  He was shot three times — in the arm, leg, and chest.  His name was Pierce O’Farrell.

Elizabeth said, “Pierce said he saw the shooter standing in line all day, waiting for a ticket.  How amazing that he could wait around with people for hours, knowing that he planned to kill them.”

“Pierce said that after the shooter had reloaded and returned to the theater, the gunman stood over him, planning to fire more bullets.  But Pierce played dead, and the gunman didn’t shoot again.  As the shooter stood over him, Pierce said he felt a dark presence there.  It was like the presence of Satan.”

“On Monday, when the shooter appeared in the courtroom and I saw him, I felt I was looking at an empty shell.  It was as though Satan had taken everything out of him, and there was nothing left but a shell.”

Bonnie Kate went into surgery at 6 a.m.  The operation was only supposed to last an hour and a half, but she didn’t get out until 5 p.m.”

“We were just two girls by ourselves.  I was in the waiting room.  By the Providence of God, several people came to me.  Some of our friends from Louisiana called a friend of theirs living in Colorado.  His name is Jonathan.  He came to the hospital and stayed with me all day.  By 6 p.m. on Friday, Bonnie Kate’s parents arrived from Baton Rouge. Bonnie Kate had only been out of surgery a few minutes.”

Elizabeth’s dad Randy arrived Saturday morning and stayed with Elizabeth and the Pourciau family.  They were in the hospital room when President Obama came by to visit.

On Monday night, Elizabeth’s dad Randy saw Pierce O’Farrell, the young man who had been shot three times, hobbling down the hallway.  He was looking for Bonnie Kate’s room.  He entered the room with a bright countenance.  Together in Bonnie Kate’s room, they worshipped God and sang.  “If people could have seen us!” Elizabeth said.

Pierce said, “When I was lying on the floor in the theatre, all I could think about was my brother, who is on the verge of making a commitment to Christ.  I had to tell him not to blame God.  Once I was able to get to a phone, I reached him and said, ‘I’ve been shot three times and may not make it through the night, but I’ve got to tell you this: Do not blame God.  He didn’t do it.’”

Elizabeth and her dad left Colorado Tuesday and arrived home Wednesday.

While on the road Tuesday night, Elizabeth said, “Today, Bonnie Kate and I are so overwhelmed by God’s greatness.  I can see that The Light is overwhelming the darkness.”

Elizabeth’s dad Randy Sumrall said that in the car on the way back from Colorado to Central he and Elizabeth prayed together and thanked God for his mercy.

Randy said, “Praise God that I can still hold my daughter.  I will never take for granted my wife or my children.  Our hearts are overflowing with gratitude to God and to many, many people who have prayed for us.”

Elizabeth said the events in Aurora will be a defining moment in her life.  “Before, when I’ve seen things on TV where people were suffering, I’ve prayed for them.  But now I will have true compassion and a response that I never could have had before.”

Elizabeth said she had been fasting and praying for two weeks before she left Seattle.  Then during the trip, she continued to pray.  Her prayer was, “God, show us your glory!”

At first after the tragedy, Elizabeth said she thought, “Why me, God?” “Why should Bonnie Kate be hurt like this?”

It wasn’t until the second day after the shooting that Elizabeth realized that God had shown her his Glory — not by the tragic and ugly events of the shooting but by how things unfolded after that.

After she had seen God at work through the loving hand of His people, she realized that God had indeed answered her prayers.

Then she thought, “Why me, God?  How could I be so loved, blessed and protected?”

Elizabeth said, “God always has

the last word.  His light shines through and overwhelms the darkness!”


 

Twitter Digg Delicious Stumbleupon Technorati Facebook Email

Comments are closed.