Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Dayna Klein - American Jewish Hero: Shot pregnant woman who saved her baby and defied terrorist speaks about Seattle attack
Dayna Klein - American Jewish Hero: Shot pregnant woman who saved her baby and defied terrorist speaks about Seattle attack
August 9, 2006
Pregnant and face to face with a gunman
Woman tells of terror at Jewish Federation 'He drew his gun and pointed it at me ... The only thing that occurred to me was how I was going to save my baby.'
Wednesday, August 9, 2006
By PHUONG CAT LE
P-I REPORTER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/280570_dayna09.html
Dayna Klein was in her Belltown office making her usual fundraising calls when she heard popping noises and screams, followed by the sound of people running.
Moments later, she found herself face to face with a gunman bent on a bloody rampage. He had forced his way into the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and, spouting epithets, began opening fire on Klein's co-workers.
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Family Photo | |
| Dayna and Erez Klein in Erice, Sicily, in April. Klein said her husband, her baby and her family were all she could think about when she was shot and "sank to the ground like a rag doll." | ||
"He drew his gun and pointed it at me," Klein, 37, recalled Tuesday in a telephone interview -- the first time she's spoken publicly about the July 28 shooting.
As the shooter squeezed the trigger, the pregnant Seattle woman swung her left arm over her belly to instinctively protect her 17-week-old unborn baby.
"It was a split second that I was able to think. I don't know how, but I was," she said. "The only thing that occurred to me was, how I was going to save my baby? That was my one shot, my one chance of saving my baby."
Even after taking the bullet, Klein managed to regain her composure and call 911 -- defying the gunman's orders. When he angrily pressed the semiautomatic handgun to her head, she persuaded him to talk to the police dispatcher.
After the dispatcher said she couldn't connect him to CNN as he demanded, he laid down his weapons and surrendered.
Klein was one of 18 employees in the building when, authorities say, Naveed Haq, 30, unleashed his hate "against members of the Jewish faith everywhere," killing 58-year-old Pamela Waechter and wounding Klein, Christina Rexroad, Layla Bush, Cheryl Stumbo and Carol Goldman.
Seattle police Chief Gil Kerlikowske has publicly pronounced Klein "a hero."
"Am I a hero? I did what I had to do," said a modest Klein, adding that the real heroes are the police officers, paramedics and fire officials who put their lives on the line to help others.
Her friends disagree.
"She was a hero for me beforehand," said Robert Jacobs, a friend and Northwest regional director of the Anti-Defamation League who had lunch with Klein hours before the shooting. "She's one of those people who gives of herself incredibly."
Where others might have lost their composure, Klein's first-aid and crisis training kicked in.
"I was able to find -- somewhere in the bowels of my brain, in the middle of this whole incident -- what to do," said Klein, who once directed the American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay and earned a master's in social work, specializing in crisis intervention.
She has worked for the federation, a Jewish charity, since 2003, and heads up major gifts and development.
Klein is scheduled to appear today on national TV: NBC's "Today" show. She was in New York Tuesday visiting relatives and seeing a specialist for her left hand, which is partially paralyzed. The bullet went through her arm and grazed her thigh before lodging in the carpet.
In her interview with the P-I, she said her husband, Erez, her baby and her family were all she could think about when she was shot and "sank to the ground like a rag doll."
The shooter was screaming and swearing that he would kill anyone who called the police.
Klein was bleeding profusely, but she "got it together," crawled over to her desk and called 911 -- defying her attacker.
"I didn't give a (expletive)," she said. "I got a 911 operator on the line, explained to her who I was, what was happening."
The dispatcher asked her to stay on the line, and she did. Klein said she thinks the gunman, after shooting her, moved toward the accounting section where she believes he then shot her colleague Christina Rexroad.
But he returned to the office and "he caught me." He pointed the gun at her head while she was on the phone.
"Now since you don't know how to ... listen, now you're the hostage, and I don't give a (expletive) if I kill you or your baby," he told her.
"He stated that he was a Muslim, (and) this was his personal statement against Jews and the Bush administration for giving money to Jews, and for us Jews for giving money to Israel, about Hezbollah, the war in Iraq, and he wanted to talk to CNN."
As calmly as she could, Klein offered him the phone and said: "Why don't you tell her (the dispatcher) yourself?"
He pushed her down on the ground, took the phone and walked behind her desk as he kept the gun pointed at her, Klein said. While he was talking with the dispatcher, she sat there quietly on the floor in her blood. She avoided eye contact with him, hoping he'd forget she was there.
Klein grabbed the plastic liner from the garbage can and wrapped her bleeding arm with it.
The gunman suddenly put his gun down and hung up the phone. He put his hands on his head in a surrender position and walked silently out of the office.
Haq has been charged with aggravated murder -- which could bring the death penalty -- and five counts of attempted murder.
Klein stayed where she was, trying to count in her head how long it would take for him to get out of the building. When she finally left her office, she was worried that he'd return. But she was also determined to help her co-workers.
She first found Bush, the receptionist and office manager. She had been shot in the abdomen.
"She looked up and saw me and burst into tears, and I told her, 'Don't cry. Stay still, and I promise I'll take care of everything.'"
Klein said she grabbed an infant one-piece outfit that someone had given her and put it on top of Bush's wound. After tending to Bush, she went back to her office to again call 911.
When SWAT officers escorted Klein out, they told her not to look at the stairwell, where her close friend Pam Waechter had been fatally shot as she tried to flee. "I looked up and saw Pam. ... I was heartbroken," she said.
Outside, someone put their arms around her and told her to run as fast as she could to the corner.
A paramedic wrote the number 3 on her head -- the third victim -- and helped her into an ambulance.
"I'm a lucky woman," Klein said, overcome by the support from the hospital, police, friends and those in Seattle and the Jewish community.
She's undergoing physical therapy and wears a brace to help her use her left hand. Co-worker Goldman has been released from the hospital, but Stumbo and Rexroad are in satisfactory condition at Harborview Medical Center and Bush is in serious condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.
For now, Klein is focused on healing, working through the trauma of the incident and looking forward to delivering her baby in a few months.
"It's about family right now and us getting better," she said. Klein said she hasn't thought about Haq because he doesn't deserve any more of her time. "I don't think about him. I move forward. I don't look backwards."
She said, "I'm really committed to taking this really horrible situation and making one hell of a glass of lemonade," adding that she has tried to remain characteristically upbeat.
She joked that the popular maternity book on what to expect during pregnancy doesn't include a chapter on what to do when you're going to be shot.
Klein's rabbi and friend, Michael Adam Latz, said she is more than a hero.
"She is a normal person who got up to go to work that day, just like millions of others, and when confronted with the horrors that she was confronted with was able to find the presence of mind and spirit to face down evil and see again the possibility of her child (being) born."
He added: "She's a real inspiration to a lot of us. She showed how ordinary people can do things that are extraordinary."
RELATED STORIES
Cleanup delayed: Federation must wait to erase upsetting signs of the shooting.
Susan Paynter: Jewish community debates whether shooting suspect should receive the death penalty if convicted.
SURVIVOR ON TV
Dayna Klein is scheduled to appear today on NBC's "Today" show. The show starts at 7 a.m. on KING/5.
Woman tells of terror at Jewish Federation 'He drew his gun and pointed it at me ... The only thing that occurred to me was how I was going to save my baby.'
Wednesday, August 9, 2006
By PHUONG CAT LE
P-I REPORTER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/280570_dayna09.html
Dayna Klein was in her Belltown office making her usual fundraising calls when she heard popping noises and screams, followed by the sound of people running.
Moments later, she found herself face to face with a gunman bent on a bloody rampage. He had forced his way into the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and, spouting epithets, began opening fire on Klein's co-workers.
| ||
|
Family Photo | |
| Dayna and Erez Klein in Erice, Sicily, in April. Klein said her husband, her baby and her family were all she could think about when she was shot and "sank to the ground like a rag doll." | ||
"He drew his gun and pointed it at me," Klein, 37, recalled Tuesday in a telephone interview -- the first time she's spoken publicly about the July 28 shooting.
As the shooter squeezed the trigger, the pregnant Seattle woman swung her left arm over her belly to instinctively protect her 17-week-old unborn baby.
"It was a split second that I was able to think. I don't know how, but I was," she said. "The only thing that occurred to me was, how I was going to save my baby? That was my one shot, my one chance of saving my baby."
Even after taking the bullet, Klein managed to regain her composure and call 911 -- defying the gunman's orders. When he angrily pressed the semiautomatic handgun to her head, she persuaded him to talk to the police dispatcher.
After the dispatcher said she couldn't connect him to CNN as he demanded, he laid down his weapons and surrendered.
Klein was one of 18 employees in the building when, authorities say, Naveed Haq, 30, unleashed his hate "against members of the Jewish faith everywhere," killing 58-year-old Pamela Waechter and wounding Klein, Christina Rexroad, Layla Bush, Cheryl Stumbo and Carol Goldman.
Seattle police Chief Gil Kerlikowske has publicly pronounced Klein "a hero."
"Am I a hero? I did what I had to do," said a modest Klein, adding that the real heroes are the police officers, paramedics and fire officials who put their lives on the line to help others.
Her friends disagree.
"She was a hero for me beforehand," said Robert Jacobs, a friend and Northwest regional director of the Anti-Defamation League who had lunch with Klein hours before the shooting. "She's one of those people who gives of herself incredibly."
Where others might have lost their composure, Klein's first-aid and crisis training kicked in.
"I was able to find -- somewhere in the bowels of my brain, in the middle of this whole incident -- what to do," said Klein, who once directed the American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay and earned a master's in social work, specializing in crisis intervention.
She has worked for the federation, a Jewish charity, since 2003, and heads up major gifts and development.
Klein is scheduled to appear today on national TV: NBC's "Today" show. She was in New York Tuesday visiting relatives and seeing a specialist for her left hand, which is partially paralyzed. The bullet went through her arm and grazed her thigh before lodging in the carpet.
In her interview with the P-I, she said her husband, Erez, her baby and her family were all she could think about when she was shot and "sank to the ground like a rag doll."
The shooter was screaming and swearing that he would kill anyone who called the police.
Klein was bleeding profusely, but she "got it together," crawled over to her desk and called 911 -- defying her attacker.
"I didn't give a (expletive)," she said. "I got a 911 operator on the line, explained to her who I was, what was happening."
The dispatcher asked her to stay on the line, and she did. Klein said she thinks the gunman, after shooting her, moved toward the accounting section where she believes he then shot her colleague Christina Rexroad.
But he returned to the office and "he caught me." He pointed the gun at her head while she was on the phone.
"Now since you don't know how to ... listen, now you're the hostage, and I don't give a (expletive) if I kill you or your baby," he told her.
"He stated that he was a Muslim, (and) this was his personal statement against Jews and the Bush administration for giving money to Jews, and for us Jews for giving money to Israel, about Hezbollah, the war in Iraq, and he wanted to talk to CNN."
As calmly as she could, Klein offered him the phone and said: "Why don't you tell her (the dispatcher) yourself?"
He pushed her down on the ground, took the phone and walked behind her desk as he kept the gun pointed at her, Klein said. While he was talking with the dispatcher, she sat there quietly on the floor in her blood. She avoided eye contact with him, hoping he'd forget she was there.
Klein grabbed the plastic liner from the garbage can and wrapped her bleeding arm with it.
The gunman suddenly put his gun down and hung up the phone. He put his hands on his head in a surrender position and walked silently out of the office.
Haq has been charged with aggravated murder -- which could bring the death penalty -- and five counts of attempted murder.
Klein stayed where she was, trying to count in her head how long it would take for him to get out of the building. When she finally left her office, she was worried that he'd return. But she was also determined to help her co-workers.
She first found Bush, the receptionist and office manager. She had been shot in the abdomen.
"She looked up and saw me and burst into tears, and I told her, 'Don't cry. Stay still, and I promise I'll take care of everything.'"
Klein said she grabbed an infant one-piece outfit that someone had given her and put it on top of Bush's wound. After tending to Bush, she went back to her office to again call 911.
When SWAT officers escorted Klein out, they told her not to look at the stairwell, where her close friend Pam Waechter had been fatally shot as she tried to flee. "I looked up and saw Pam. ... I was heartbroken," she said.
Outside, someone put their arms around her and told her to run as fast as she could to the corner.
A paramedic wrote the number 3 on her head -- the third victim -- and helped her into an ambulance.
"I'm a lucky woman," Klein said, overcome by the support from the hospital, police, friends and those in Seattle and the Jewish community.
She's undergoing physical therapy and wears a brace to help her use her left hand. Co-worker Goldman has been released from the hospital, but Stumbo and Rexroad are in satisfactory condition at Harborview Medical Center and Bush is in serious condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.
For now, Klein is focused on healing, working through the trauma of the incident and looking forward to delivering her baby in a few months.
"It's about family right now and us getting better," she said. Klein said she hasn't thought about Haq because he doesn't deserve any more of her time. "I don't think about him. I move forward. I don't look backwards."
She said, "I'm really committed to taking this really horrible situation and making one hell of a glass of lemonade," adding that she has tried to remain characteristically upbeat.
She joked that the popular maternity book on what to expect during pregnancy doesn't include a chapter on what to do when you're going to be shot.
Klein's rabbi and friend, Michael Adam Latz, said she is more than a hero.
"She is a normal person who got up to go to work that day, just like millions of others, and when confronted with the horrors that she was confronted with was able to find the presence of mind and spirit to face down evil and see again the possibility of her child (being) born."
He added: "She's a real inspiration to a lot of us. She showed how ordinary people can do things that are extraordinary."
RELATED STORIES
Cleanup delayed: Federation must wait to erase upsetting signs of the shooting.
Susan Paynter: Jewish community debates whether shooting suspect should receive the death penalty if convicted.
SURVIVOR ON TV
Dayna Klein is scheduled to appear today on NBC's "Today" show. The show starts at 7 a.m. on KING/5.
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