Unbelievable: Vegas massacre survivor lived to see his son escape Parkland mass shooting

dcnf-2-1Anders Hagstrom, DCNF

This Florida father-son pair now have a new thing in common: surviving a mass shooting.

Unlike 17 of his schoolmates, Braden Freidkes survived last week’s shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. His father, John Freidkes, shared his good fortune at the Las Vegas massacre that claimed 58 lives in October 2017.

Braden spent the shooting in the classroom of his favorite teacher, Scott Beigel – or Mr. Beigel to him. Beigel heroically corralled students into his classroom and later died defending them. Braden had to step over the body of his favorite teacher to get to safety.

“What really hurt me is that I passed every test, but the last one I did bad on and that’s how it ended for me. I was super sad to kind of let him down on that,” Braden told CNN.

Months early, John had considered homeschooling Braden as a result of his experience in Las Vegas, where he hid in a taxi with other concert-goers.

“There was a crowd of people running towards us yelling ‘there’s a shooter, there’s a shooter,’” said John. “We were lucky enough to jump in a taxi cab where there were two women in there already. One was hyperventilating, the other was seemingly in shock. We asked if they were coming from the venue and they were.”

John ultimately decided to keep his son at Stoneman Douglas, explaining that he wouldn’t teach his son to live in fear. But with the horrific experiences shared between them, that may be easier said than done.

“I want to be safe wherever I go,” said Braden. “I want to go to school to learn, I want to get an education, I want to be safe, and I want to come home to see my parents every day.”

Follow Anders on Twitter

Send Tips: [email protected]

Freedom of Speech Isn’t Free
The Daily Caller News Foundation is working hard to balance out the biased American media. For as little as $3, you can help us. Make a one-time donation to support the quality, independent journalism of TheDCNF. We’re not dependent on commercial or political support and we do not accept any government funding.
For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

BPR INSIDER COMMENTS

Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!

Latest Articles