In riveting and emotional testimony, Aaliyah Eastmond, a survivor of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland Florida which killed seventeen students and school staff, confronted Republicans on the Judiciary Committee and told them what it was like to hide under a dead body as her fellow students were gunned down. Ms. Eastmond was testifying against the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, who has been criticized for his broad interpretations of the Second Amendment.
"2:21. We heard a round of extremely loud pops and I had no idea what it was," Ms. Eastmond began, describing the day that Nikolas Cruz brought an AR-15 to the school and opened fire. "I remember telling myself if I were to get shot anywhere I wouldn't make it. I need to be behind something. The only thing in front of me was Nicholas Dworet," a fellow student.
Moments later, Eastmond watched her 17 year-old classmate die. "Nicholas rapidly fell over in front of me. I saw every movement of his body. When he fell over, I fell over with him," Eastmond recalled. "I then placed myself under his lifeless body, placing his arm across my body and my head underneath his back. Bullets continued flying."
Eastmond described holding her breath and pretending to be dead while hiding under her classmate's corpse. "I told God that I knew I was going to die. I asked him please make it fast. I didn't want to feel anything. I asked for the bullet to go through my head so I wouldn't endure any pain." She also described, in a quavering voice, placing what she thought would be her last phone call to her parents. Her mother, she said, later suffered a miscarriage as a result "of what the shock did to her body."
"As for people of color, law enforcement is the shooter in some cases," Eastmond continued as a clearly upset Senator Cory Booker rubbed what appeared to be tears from his eyes. "Like many of my brothers and sisters, I am not comforted by deputies with handguns, let alone assault rifles."
Her voice rising angrily, Eastmond then moved on to the subject of her testimony, Mr.Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court. "I am very concerned since learning Brett Kavanaugh's views on guns and how he would strike down any assault weapons ban," she said, and urged the committee to remember her story and those of thousands of other victims and survivors.
Taking a deep breath, Eastmond then named and shamed both the nominee and his sponsor, President Trump. "If Kavanaugh doesn't have the decency to shake hands with the father of a victim, he definitely won't have the decency to make life-changing decisions that affect real people," she said. "If the youth across the country can fight to eradicate gun violence, why can't judges, lawmakers, and Donald Trump understand young people are dying from this senseless gun violence?"
Watch the video below.
