Teen who survived West Liberty-Salem High School shooting engaged to principal's daughter
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The 911 calls serve as a reminder of what could have happened the day a 17-year-old fired his loaded gun at a West Liberty-Salem High School.
On Jan. 20, 2017, Logan Cole said he stopped in the bathroom to check his hair while on the way to a mock trial competition at the Champaign County school.
"I go and walk in, and the shooter is standing right there," Cole said. ”I don't even have time to process -- it's just instant."
Cole saw fellow classmate Ely Serna standing before him armed with a gun. Serna fired several shots at Cole -- first in the chest and again in the back -- knocking Cole to his face and leaving him critically injured with two broken teeth, he said.
Greg Johnson, principal of West Liberty-Salem High School at the time of the shooting, said he remembers the smell of gunshots lingering in the hallway and a voice in the bathroom, which turned out to be Cole's, attempting to convince the shooter to put down his weapon.
"'You haven't killed anybody, you don't need to hurt anybody else, just please go get help,'" Johnson recalled overhearing.
Cole's desperate pleas, he said, were successful. Serna apologized and slid the gun under the bathroom stall -- ending the possibility of future fatalities at the high school.
While the shooting left Cole with constant back pain and 200 lead pellets discarded in his body from the shotgun blasts, he said his interaction with Serna in the bathroom could have saved dozens of lives.
"I interrupted his plans,” Cole said. “If I'd walked in five minutes later, he would have walked out and shot people in the hallway."
More than five years later, Cole -- whose voice Principal Johnson overheard in the bathroom -- is now engaged to Johnson's daughter, Addy. It's all part of the plan, Cole said, that's been set for him.
“God gave me Addy, and God gave Addy me, and I get to spend the rest of my life enjoying and loving," Cole said.
Classmates at West Liberty-Salem High School, Cole, who works at his family's business in Urbana, went to Cedarville University, and his bride-to-be, who's currently preparing for grad school, attended The Ohio State University.
Johnson said he "couldn't be happier" for his daughter and soon-to-be son-in-law Cole.
"I think both sets of parents knew it all along these two would make a really good couple, it took them a little longer to figure it out," Johnson said.
Cole said his nightmares from the 2017 shooting have faded, and he even forgave Serna at his sentencing hearing. The plan, he said, remains in tact.
"I'm thankful it was me that walked in," he said. "It's just all a miracle and I don't take credit for that."