Valentine Road

Everyone knows where LA is.

You tell someone, do you know where Oxnard is?

Hardly anyone knows,

unless they've heard about the story.

It was a bad thing that happened,

horrible thing that happened.

We all learned a lot about life through this,

and I know people on the outside

have learned a lot about themselves through this.

Like, I just woke up

like it was just another morning.

But I was sick, and I didn't wanna go to school,

but I pushed myself to go to school.

I had bought a new sweater the day before,

so I was quite happy to wear it and stuff.

And then mom drove me to school,

gave her a kiss goodbye.

Everyone was just hanging out

like they usually do before the bell rings.

We walked down to the computer lab.

Larry and I walked together.

The rest of the class was behind us.

He brought me little flowers in a Dixie cup.

He was just a sweetheart of a kid.

He was a little smaller, you know, those kind of kids.

You tend to... okay, you just wanna protect 'em.

We went to type our essays

for Holocaust, Anne Frank and stuff like that.

It's so fricking ironic.

It's a unit on tolerance.

Everybody sat down and we started typing.

I was walking around, up and down,

and checking on people's things,

and then all of a sudden, I heard this pop.

Like a loud bang, like a balloon popped.

And I just knew

somebody had exploded one of those computers,

and I turned around and Brandon was standing.

I said, "What the hell are you doing?"

I don't know how long it took

for me to realize that was a gun.

I stood up from my chair

and I was able to see over the computer.

I just saw his eyes.

I looked at him, he looked at me,

and then all of a sudden, there was another pop.

He just gave him another one

back of the head, and he dropped.

Miss Boldrin tried helping Larry,

but she was too shocked and paranoid.

She didn't know what to do.

Brandon put the gun down and he ran out.

911 Emergency dispatch

You're at E.O. Green School?

Yes. Shots were fired by Room 42 on campus.

Do you know where the person with a gun is?

No.

- Who's the victim? - Is there a victim?

I'm on the phone with dispatch.

Larry!

We need an ambulance.

The ambulance is on the way.

They should be there staging any time now, okay?

Everyone was screaming,

like the kids that had seen it,

like the blood and everything, I guess.

There was somebody else doing first aid.

All I kept thinking is let him know I'm here.

He knows my voice,

and he was just looking around and trying to find me.

So he was definitely hearing me.

He was vomiting and gasping,

and thrashing around, obviously in extreme pain.

One of the people in the office came on the intercom,

and she sounded really frantic and it was, like,

"We're on lockdown. This is not a drill."

These giant cops came in with huge guns

and, like, kicked the door open.

We've realized since Columbine,

there was a potential for more victims.

There was a potential for more suspects,

so they had to start searching the school.

30 people come in with the full-on suit

and with like lights on their helmets and guns,

like they were pointing them everywhere,

and that just even got us more scared.

Our first priority is what do we do

with the children that were in the classroom

that actually directly visually witnessed what happened.

They were put into a spare room.

We put on a movie for 'em,

and staged some officers in the room.

Let's stick these 20, what, five of us in a room.

Let's put on "Jaws".

Not a cartoon, or... Let's put on "Jaws".

There was a huge line,

all the way down the street

of parents waiting to pick up their children.

There were children could have been hurt

and they were just having them wait outside in a line,

like nothing's happened.

Hi, everybody, I wanted to let you know

a quick update on the incident

that happened this morning

out at E.O. Green School in Oxnard.

The victim is in surgery right now

at St. John's hospital,

so we're keeping our fingers crossed,

saying our prayers for this young man,

and the suspect in this case fled the area

and he was apprehended by police just a couple of blocks away.

My friend Matt pulled up and came walking in,

and I was, like, "Hey, how's it going?"

He was, like, there was a shooting at E.O. Green

and I said, "Yeah, I heard on the radio.

It's, like, crazy?"

and he was all, "Brandon was involved with that,"

and I honestly thought, like,

he was the one who got shot and I'm, like,

"Is he alive, is he ok" you know?

And he's, like, "No, like, he shot a kid."

I just fell to my knees and started crying,

and I started screaming "No!"

That's all I really remember, is just screaming no,

and smashing holes in everything.

And then some detectives showed up

and tried to talk to me... and I, like,

you know, he's not the victim here,

I don't understand why you're so upset.

What's your full name, son?

Brandon.

Is that B Yes, sir.

Your middle name.

David, McInerney.

Me and my brother looked up to my little brother,

because he was the good one.

He never did no drugs, never got drunk.

We were all doing that when he were his age.

He was all about keeping his life straight

and then, and then all this happened.

Just turned 15?

14, sir.

14, yeah, 14.

People did look at Brandon

as older than he really was.

Deep down, he was still a kid, you know,

he still bought action figure toys

and he played with Pokémon cards.

I heard that he got caught

like a couple of streets over, but I was still scared.

When I found out someone got shot,

I knew automatically that it was Larry.

Yeah. Same here.

The first time that I met Larry,

some kid was over there

and the kid said something to him,

and Larry got in his face and said,

"Hey, I am who I am, so don't..." you know,

and I ran over there

and I got in that kid's face and said,

"You know what, just leave this kid alone, you know?"

That's when we became friends, you know.

We're like brothers, so we look after each other.

We would go to get clothes, right,

from the front, donated clothes.

He would always go for the girls clothes for some reason.

I'm like, what?

We had on episode during Christmas break

where he got make-up he put on.

It was purple and bright, and my God,

it was the first time I'd seen him put make-up on,

and he goes "What do you think?"

and I go, "I think you look like a clown"

and, being a woman who puts on make-up,

"I can tell you that."

So we got a VST, take him in and really show him

how to put it on but not put it on.

Further in, all of a sudden...

the boots appeared and I remember thinking

I can't... walk in those things all day.

I don't know how he's doing it.

He's a tough kid, but he's strong willed,

and I remember telling him one time,

Larry, you really shouldn't be wearing

heeled shoes to school, because, it's, you know,

because it's dangerous. When you're doing PE,

and so he put on tennis shoes and went out the door with me.

Little did I know, he had tucked his heels

into a backpack.

Whenever Brandon talked about Larry,

it was about what Larry was wearing,

'cause it really was just, weird.

It was, like, off the wall to him.

It was off the wall to me, too.

I think Larry was kind of shoving it in everyone's face.

For you to come to school dressed like that,

you're making a big statement.

At Christmas time, Larry said very shyly,

"I've got a present for you."

And it was a little blanket and a mouse