Video: Broncos' Eric Decker on living through school shooting, helping Aurora theater survivor
Eric Decker had some ups and downs in the Broncos' win over the Chargers last night -- catching a sure touchdown pass before inexplicably falling down, and later scoring a TD in an impressive act of will. But he's familiar with emotional swings, having lived through a school shooting -- an experience that's led him to reach out to survivors of the Aurora theater shooting, including a past Westword profile subject. Details and video below.
Video below.
Prior to the game's broadcast on ESPN last night, longtime Denverite Rick Reilly followed up on his entertaining September look at Mayor Michael Hancock's time as Broncos mascot Huddles with an insightful Decker profile.
The piece kicks off by noting the charmed aspects of Decker's life, and there are plenty of them. He is, after all, a startlingly handsome specimen whose significant other is country singer Jesse James, recently voted the hottest wife or girlfriend in the NFL. But things take a Reilly-esque serious turn when Decker recounts his experience at Rocori High School in Cold Spring, Minnesota.
Decker and Jessie James.
On September 24, 2003, as recapped in this Minnesota Public Radio article, a student named John McLaughlin brought a gun to Rocori and killed Seth Bartell, a fourteen-year-old freshman; a seventeen-year-old senior, Aaron Rollins, also died after being struck by a stray bullet.
Rollins was a baseball teammate of Decker's, and he knew Seth through the boy's older brother, Jesse. In speaking with Reilly, he recalls Jesse's cries of "That's my brother!," warnings of a "code red" that he didn't understand, and hiding with other students in a closet for at least thirty minutes before police officers gave the all-clear.
John McLaughlin.
McLaughlin was later tried as an adult and convicted of the homicides after a judge rejected his argument that he merely meant to scare Bartell rather than kill him.
No wonder the Aurora theater shooting resonated with Decker. Not only was the Century 16, where twelve people were murdered and 58 injured, a relatively short drive from his home, but as Reilly points out, the Broncos' practice facility is basically a hundred yards or so from the detention center where accused killer James Holmes is currently in custody. So after the attack, Decker was among the first celebrities to visit hospitalized victims, and he made a personal connection with at least one of them -- Stephen Barton.
Continue to read more about Eric Decker and Stephen Barton and see two related videos.
Email to Friend
Write to Editor
Print Article
