OKLAHOMA CITY – Sunsets and sirens; who could have even imagined such contrasting worlds would collide on a quiet Thursday evening at Lake Hefner?
Around 6:30 p.m. on May 24, a gunman with a Ruger 9mm was targeting innocent civilians enjoying a nice dinner on Lake Hefner before sunset.
15-year-old Alex Speegle locked eyes with the gunman.
“She was able to describe him to a T; even his eye color. Then I knew he was really close to her, if she could say he had blue eyes,” Shelly Lee, Alex’s mother, told News 4.
Alex was entering Louie’s On the Lake with her friends and their mom when they heard what sounded like fireworks.
“I did not see him until we heard the firecrackers. I saw out of my vision concrete flying up,” Speegle said.
After that, what seemed like a never-ending shower of bullets.
“I stood there and took a mental picture of him, and then I got shot and then I ran. I ran behind to the bushes and was screaming for help. Yelling, ‘God, why me? Help me,’” she remembered.
Dozens made a mad scramble for safety.
Morgan Watts was there for dinner with her husband.
“We started running and encountered a girl who had been shot. We took her to a safe area. Us and a few other folks assisted, including a doctor, helped stopped the bleeding of the wounds,” Morgan Watts said.
“I was on the phone with her mom when the second shots came through. We all hit the floor and waited for it to be over,” Chad Watts added.
Chad was persistent; four consecutive calls before Alex’s mom, Shelly, finally answered that unfamiliar number.
“He said, ‘I’m with your daughter. There has been a shooting. She’s been shot.’ My immediate response to that statement was, ‘What? What?’” Lee said.
In all, Alex had suffered two gunshot wounds. The first shattered her collarbone. The second severed a radial nerve, which controls 12 muscles responsible for wrist and hand movement.
“My bicep is completely shattered. I have metal here, all the way down to my elbow,” said Speegle. “This is as much as I can move my hand basically.”
Alex’s injuries are severe. Many more surgeries, rehabilitation, and months of healing. Alex has every reason to be angry.
“I have anger for five seconds, then I turn around and think, ‘Well this happened for a reason, and I can’t get mad at God for putting me in this situation,” she said.
Her faith is unwavering. This soon-to-be high school freshman was baptized just days before the shooting.
“’God has a recipe for goodness and it can’t all be sweet and sugary. You have to have a little salt and vinegar,’ Alex told me. It’s true but it’s all for goodness. No matter the pain we go through, something good comes from it,” Lee told News 4.
The family has received an endless train of meals, flowers and gifts from complete strangers.
“Oklahomans are always there and rally for anyone,” Lee said.
They are also beholden to the heroes like Dr. Laura Miles, who just happened to be at Louie’s that night. An answered prayer.
“She told me she had an audible voice that told her, the audible voice said, ‘Are you going to run or go toward her?’ She stopped and said out loud, ‘I’m going toward her.’ Ran toward her and pushed her into the bushes, and started tending to her injuries,” Lee remembers their phone conversation.
KFOR was there when Chad and Morgan checked up on Alex.
There will undoubtedly be struggles on this long road to recovery, but Alex knows she’s not alone.
“I’m so blessed that I’m alive. Blessed to have guardian angels over me and so blessed to have doctors and the guys who put the shooter down. I’m so thankful,” she said.
Click here for Alex’s GoFundMe page