MEMPHIS, Tenn. — University of Memphis faculty and students to simply put it, have been dealing with trauma.
After Eliza Fletcher was abducted near the campus, a shooter was reported on campus just days later.
A professor shared how he acted on instinct quickly to get his students out of any potential harm's way.
“I had a student bust into my classroom and say there’s a shooter on campus,” said Dr. Justin Dodson. "Then, I heard people barricading themselves in the classrooms above my class.”
Panic on campus turned to quick-thinking action.
“I was trying to get my class out of the building and to safety,” recalled Dodson. “We were piling into my car, dropping them off at their cars.”
The graduate professor never expected shots fired so close to his building at UofM.
“We’re walking on the wall like you would see in a movie,” he recounted.
University police notified faculty and students of the shooting incident at Patterson and Southern, just a block away from Dodson’s classroom in Patterson Hall.
A report Memphis police were responding to, as well as seven other “random” shootings around the city, three of them deadly.
After he got his students to safety, the reality of the mobile mass shooting set in.
“When I got home, I realized he had been at that corner of the building that I teach in,” said the professor. “So, it’s scary and I’m calling my mom frantically to say ‘Where are you?’ Get off the streets.'”
That reality also set in for students who live on campus.
“I just hid though, hid under my bed,” said a student the night of the shooting rampage.
“If you were to ask me if I felt safe on campus, I would tell you no,” said a student who said she is worried about safety and loved ones getting to her from Mobile, Alabama.
Dr. Dodson, also a mental health therapist, said he processed the shock and fear with his students a week later.
The chaos that erupted in the city that night, leading to a lockdown, drove home a sobering fact.
“Getting home is a luxury," he said. "Getting home, seeing the garage door open, that is a relief because you never know what’s going to happen especially when someone’s out there losing it.”
UofM held a group prayer the week of the citywide shootings and the university's counseling center is providing services to students.
Dodson said he hopes workplaces provide the time and place for people to feel and grieve.