As Adam Lanza carried out his murderous rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday, one brave 8-year-old student reassured his frightened classmates that they would be all right.
A third-grader at the Newtown, Conn., school, Luke Santana, 8, managed to stay calm after the first shots rang out.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE DAILY NEWS ONLINE PETITION TO BAN ASSAULT WEAPONS
With his teacher in tears as she ushered the students into an adjacent classroom to try to hide, Luke did his best to comfort his friends.
“It was awkward because everyone was piling up on each other, and I was saying, ‘Don’t worry … stop crying. My dad is a police officer; he’s going to help,” Santana told Sky News.
Luke’s father, Luke Ramirez, a police officer in the neighboring town of Oxford, learned of the deadly shooting on his scanner and raced to the scene.
ELIE WIESEL: IF MASSACRE OF 20 CHILDREN DOESN’T BRING GUN CONTROL, WHAT WILL?
“He wasn’t sure if his son was alive,” Luke’s mother, Lisandra Santana, said.
What Ramirez found when he arrived was practically unimaginable. In all, 20 children and 6 adults, including the 20-year-old gunman, lay dead on the floor of the school.
PHOTOS: MASKED GUNMAN KILLS 26 AT CONNECTICUT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
His son had been lucky, however, for Lanza had taken his own life before killing even more students with an arsenal that included a his mother’s .223-caliber Bushmaster assault rifle.
For Ramirez, those images are now forever burned into his memory.
“(My father) actually threw up because of all the work he had done,” Luke said. “He was sad for them.”
Processing what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary that day will take time. Luke’s former first-grade teacher, Victoria Soto, died trying to shield her students from the hail of bullets. The sister of one of his classmates was also one of the victims.
PHOTOS: NEWTOWN, CONN. MOURNS AFTER DAY OF TERROR
“He’s gone through a lot, but I’m so proud of him,” Luke’s mother said.
“I’m glad he was brave and that he was able to talk to his classmates and tell them everything was going to be OK.”
PHOTOS: MEET THE VICTIMS OF THE TRAGIC SANDY HOOK SHOOTING
Still, Luke is grappling with thoughts that few adults would be prepared to face.
“I’m glad I wasn’t on the other side (of the building),” Luke told CBS News, “because I probably wouldn’t make it.”
