April 16, 2007 is a day most people in the New River Valley will never forget. A shooting at Virginia Tech left 32 people dead and another dozen wounded. At the time, it was the largest mass shooting in the US history.
Kristina Anderson was a student who was shot three times. She survived and the picture of her being carried out of Norris Hall to safety by police officers made the front page of major newspapers around the globe.
If you do a Google search, the photograph pops up every time.
For Anderson and many others, the day remains vivid in her mind. She remembered the police officer who scooped her up and carried her out of the building, but she had never met him until last week.
Curtis Brown was an active member of the Christiansburg Police Department who answered the emergency call like other police officers that day. He said he never wanted to be considered a hero; he was just doing his job.
The two had recently touched base on Facebook, but it wasn’t until this past Wednesday that they had a chance to meet face-to-face since that tragic day.
Anderson now travels the country speaking at school safety conferences, telling her story. She is the executive director of the Koshka Foundation for Safe Schools, which is based on the West Coast.
The job brought her to Alexandria and sitting in the crowd was Brown. She took a moment to bring attention to one of the officers who carried her from harms way to safety.
“Curtis, would you say hello,” Anderson said.
He stood and received a standing ovation from the audience.
“This was the first time I’ve seen her since we carried her out of the Tech building,” he said.
After the conference, they hugged and shed a few tears, posing for a photograph. Brown said the two will hold each others memory for a lifetime.
“She is a bright, confident woman full of life that is telling her story so others might learn from it,” Brown said. “I’m very proud of what she has been able to accomplish and think of her as one of my daughters,” he said. “She now does a great job telling her story. She’s done well and her speech is very powerful.”
After he handed Anderson off to other officers waiting outside, he returned to the crime scene looking for other survivors.
“I can remember telling her to grab ahold of my neck. She did and didn’t let go. I hurried to get her out to safety and remember saying to myself—don’t drop her,” Brown said.
April 16 is a day Brown will never forget. Going back into the building, he remembers the ringing of cell phones throughout the building, something that still haunts him to this day.
“Parents were calling their sons and daughters and no one was answering. The cell phones just kept ringing and ringing. Finally, we started turning off the cell phones,” he said.
The scene is still very vivid to Brown who wiped away a tear or two when discussing it Sunday afternoon.
“I remember hearing about the initial shooting and then word came there was an active shooter. We rushed to campus to see what we could do,” he said.
He approached Norris Hall where the shooter had made his rounds and was still shooting people as Brown and others entered the building.
“I remember hearing the sounds of gunfire ringing throughout the building. I admit, I was scared, because we didn’t know what we were going into. We just started carrying the wounded out as quickly as possible,” Brown said.
He remembered trying to get one student up and out of the building.
“The student dropped his book bag and wanted to go back. I stopped him and ushered him out,” he said.
Last week’s reunion put a lump in Brown’s throat. He never was looking for recognition but meeting the girl he carried out gave him a bit of closure.
Several times, he has walked on the Virginia Tech campus remembering that tragic day. He admits hiding tears, and he along with other officers that answered the call talked about it early on.
“It helped in dealing with everything we saw and heard,” Brown said.
Now it has just become part of all the officers’ past.
Brown recently retired from the Christiansburg Police Department and praised all of the first responders and fellow officers that answered the call that day.
“You never know when you might get another call like that one. You have to believe in your training and do your job. I have worked with a lot of good people in the Christiansburg police department and other area departments.”
