Ned Carlstrom thought the shooting at the Virginia Beach government building where he works was an elaborately staged drill for city employees. He crossed paths with the gunman three times – and survived.
CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Even after the gunfire erupted, Ned Carlstrom thought the shooting at the Virginia Beach government building where he works was an elaborately staged drill for city employees. He crossed paths with the gunman three times – and survived. Reality set in when Carlstrom looked outside and saw a team of police officers point guns at the building as they dragged away a fatally wounded contractor, leaving behind a pool of blood. Carlstrom said he locked eyes with the shooter, DeWayne Craddock, twice during the rampage but didn’t exchange words over a blaring fire alarm. He can only guess why Craddock killed 12 people but spared him, never even pointing a gun at him. He said that before the shooting, he often would have lighthearted conversations with the soft-spoken Craddock, a civil engineer, as they walked into the office from the parking lot. He wonders if that’s why Craddock let him live. »I guess it’s a feeling of being fortunate, » Carlstrom told The Associated Press on Sunday during an interview at his home in Chesapeake, Virginia. Carlstrom, who works in the billing section of the city’s water department, was sitting at his desk in a second-floor office when the shooting started Friday afternoon.
