LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University student Troy Forbush called his mother on the night of Feb. 13 at 8:18 p.m. from Berkey Hall and told her that he had been shot.
"My son called my cellphone and said, 'I love you, Mom. I've been shot. There's a shooter,'" said Krista Grettenberger, who testified Wednesday before the Michigan House Judiciary Committee on proposed gun control legislation introduced in the wake of the deadly MSU shooting.
It wasn't until later that Grettenberger said she learned the horror of what her 21-year-old son had endured.
"In the classroom, my son came face-to-face with the gunman and pleaded for his life," said Grettenberger, who lives near in MSU's East Lansing campus in neighboring Okemos. "'Please don't shoot me,' were the words (he) said before the gunman shot him in his chest."
Grettenberger gave the first detailed account of what a survivor endured in the mass shooting on campus since it occurred nearly a month ago and begged lawmakers to protect others from enduring what her son did after MSU became the latest school beset with a mass shooting.
Forbush was among eight MSU students who encountered a gunman who killed three students and badly wounded five others in Berkey Hall and the MSU union before killing himself about 4 miles from campus in Lansing.
Among those who died were 19-year-old Arielle Anderson of Harper Woods, 20-year-old Alexandria Verner of Clawson, who were inside of Berkey Hall; and 20-year-old Brian Fraser of Grosse Pointe who was in the MSU student union.
Besides Forbush, the four other MSU students who were badly wounded and hospitalized include John Hao, a 20-year-old student from China who was paralyzed from the waist down; Nate Statly, a 20-year-old junior who sustained a severe head injury; Guadalupe Huapilla-Perez, a junior who underwent at least one surgery and faced an additional two more, according to family and friends who identified them through GoFundMe pages to raise money for their care. The fifth student has not yet been identified.
Forbush vowed not to be a number and to "enact change" after he announced Feb. 26 on social media that he underwent emergency surgery and spent a week in intensive care before he was the first of the five wounded students to be discharged from Sparrow Hospital in Lansing. Two other students have since been discharged, but two students are still getting care at the hospital.
"This was his worst nightmare, a nightmare he actually practiced for over and over again since he was little," Grettenberger told lawmakers. "Can you hear me? We live in a country where children as young as kindergarten must actually practice how to survive an active shooter assault in school. This is not normal. This is a nightmare. This is a recurring nightmare."
The mother cited the November 2021 deadly shooting at Oxford High School in Oakland County, along with shootings across the country in Uvalde, Texas; Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Littleton, Colorado, and at concerts, churches and restaurants.
"No one is safe anywhere," Grettenberger said.
Grettenberger was joined at the hearing with her daughter, Sloane Forbush, and her state representative, Julie Brixie, D-Meredian Township.
Before Grettenberger spoke, Brixie asked that the press not ask for any interviews afterward.
Grettenberger's 10-minute testimony included details of what happened after her son called her cell phone and told her that he had been shot, prompting a lockdown of thousands of students in dorms, classrooms and apartments for three and a half hours while a gunman was still armed.
She said she no longer heard her son's voice after he told her that he had been shot, and he did not answer when she screamed his name.
She stayed on the phone.
"As I stayed on the line trying to get his attention, what I heard next were the voices of frantic, scared, young adults, working together to secure the classroom and attend the wounded," Grettenberger said.
She got into her car and raced to Berkey Hall. She abandoned her car when she was blocked by police barricades.
"From there, I ran down Grand River (Avenue) to get to the unsecured shooting scene, not knowing what to expect," Grettenberger said. "There, I found Troy being loaded in an ambulance. He was as gray as cement. But I was able to tell him that I loved him, and he was strong before the ambulance sped away."
As Forbush recovered in the intensive care unit after a bullet went through his lung, Grettenberger said she learned how he fought for his life in the classroom.
"As he lay there in his own blood, he recalls hearing his classmates asking for belts, rushing around screaming and frightened," Grettenberger said. "One classmate even took his own shirt off and pressed it to my son's chest."
Grettenberger ended her comments by calling for change.
"Families like ours all across the nation are the walking wounded," she said. "Our scars will last the rest of our lives. The students of MSU will carry their scars, their trauma, forever."
"My son and our family are not only victims of mass shootings, we are victims of a failed system that can't keep guns form those who aim to inflict devastating harm," Grettenberger continued. "Michiganders should not have to be afraid to live our every day lives going to school, to the movies, to churches, to restaurants, stores and concerts. I stand before you as a mother of a beautiful child, gunned down, shot through his lung in his place of learning by a man who should have never had access to a gun."
Grettenberger said it won't be known if the MSU tragedy could have been prevented if Michigan had laws requiring safe storage of weapons, universal background checks on all gun sales or extreme risk protection orders, also called "red flag" laws.
"But the reality is any one of these measures might have stopped this man from shooting my son, his fellow Spartans and terrorizing this entire community," Grettenberger said. "Please, come together as our respected lawmakers and do everything possible to pass all laws that can help save Michiganders from becoming the next victim of gun violence. And that starts with passing this crucial bill package."
After her testimony, the House Judiciary Committee advanced a universal criminal background check bill to the House floor for consideration. A vote on the bill was planned for late Wednesday night.
Grettenberger concluded her remarks by telling lawmakers that they have the power to prevent deadly gun violence.
"You could save your own child’s life," she said. "You could save your grandchild’s life. You have all of our lives in your hands, including yourself. This is what we elected you to do. Please, I beg you, do your job."
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