One Adventist Wounded in Shooting; LLU Returns to Normal Operations
December 4, 2015: An Adventist woman was wounded in during the mass shooting in San Bernardino earlier this week and sources have told Adventist Today that Loma Linda University (LLU) closed down classes on Wednesday (December 2). The university has returns to normal operations and continues to treat some of the most seriously wounded.
Law enforcement informed the LLU Medical Center that multiple gun shots had been fired Wednesday morning at a San Bernardino County building about three miles from campus. The emergency room received five adult patients during the day. Steps were taken to ensure the safety of patients and employees.
The Medical Center declared a code yellow alert at 2:30 pm in response to a bomb threat. Hospital protocols were initiated at the request of law enforcement personnel. The alert was lifted about an hour later, when experts determined the threat lacked credibility after a careful screening of the interior and exterior of the facility.
As part of the effort to ensure the safety of all students and faculty members, the University cancelled Wednesday classes in mid afternoon, and encouraged students to leave public areas of the campus.
The entire campus is back at normal operations. All scheduled classes met Thursday with no alterations in the schedule. The Medical Center’s operations have returned to normal. The emergency department is receiving new patients, and no areas of the facility are operating under any restrictions.
An Adventist believer sustained head, arm and leg injuries that were not life threatening during the mass shooting, according to a digital bulletin from the Adventist Review. Amanda Gaspard was coordinating a meeting and Christmas luncheon for the the San Bernardino County Health Department where two shooters went on a rampage Wednesday, killing at least 14 people and injuring 21. “She was in charge of the meeting that day. In God’s mercy, she had just dismissed everyone for a short break or there would have been more people in the room,” her mother, Diane Gaspard, told the Adventist Review.
Diane Gaspard said the male attacker could have killed her daughter, a 2002 graduate of Blue Mountain Academy, the Adventist secondary school near Reading, Pennsylvania, but for some reason aimed his gun at her leg, the Adventist Review reported. “Amanda’s faith is so strong. She witnesses constantly,” Diane Gaspard said. “We believe that because of her loving kindness the shooter did not kill her. He stood over her and shot her. He could easily have aimed at her head but shot her in the leg instead.”
Gaspard, who was flying to California from the U.S. East Coast to be with her daughter on Thursday, said Amanda quickly contacted her to let her know that she was alive. Amanda was hit multiple times with shrapnel in multiple locations, including the head. She has had reparative surgery for wounds to a vein in the leg and thigh, according to the Adventist Review bulletin. She is in stable condition.