It was something Laura Dominguez never thought she’d hear about a friend.
Ms. Dominguez, of Silvis, a senior at Northern Illinois University, graduate said her friend Maria Ruiz-Santana was one of the students injured when a gunman burst into a Cole Hall classroom Thursday afternoon.
Ms. Ruiz-Santana, of Chicago, had pellets in her shoulder, chest and the front of one leg from a shotgun blast, Ms. Dominguez said.
“She’s pretty good,” Ms. Dominguez said late Thursday, after speaking with her friend. “She was shot in three places and is in critical but stable condition.”
She didn’t know what hospital her friend was in, only that she had been moved from Kishwaukee Community Hospital, where most of the victims were.
An update through email, Ms. Dominguez said Ms. Ruiz-Santana had to have surgery that night of the shooting and the following morning. Ms. Dominguez said her friend will be in the hospital a minimum of two weeks with constant surgery treatment.
“The shotgun damaged several parts of her body and the doctors had to remove the pellets,” Ms. Dominguez said.
While classes at NIU were canceled in December after racist graffiti and threats were found scrawled on a bathroom wall, Ms. Dominguez said she just never expected something like the shootings to happen there.
“Not here,” she said. “You never think about these things until they hit close to home.”
Ms. Dominguez found out about the shootings from another friend as she was walking out of her dorm room. She was impressed with NIU’s security, and the hotlines set up for students and parents.
“All the dorm doors were closed,” she said. “No one could come in; no one could come out.”
She said by Thursday night most students had left the dorms to go home, and that the university was “virtually empty.”
She joked that so many friends and relatives had called Thursday to check on her that she’d run out of minutes on her cell phone, but said she was thankful for their support. Ms. Dominguez is asking for support from the Quad City Community through prayers.
“She was my gym buddy,” she said. “The truth is, I miss her very much and I hope that she gets well soon. I know she is very strong and many of us are praying for her.”
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