Survivor recalls Emcore shooting horror

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Employees who work at Emcore two days after a gunman opened fire killing two and injuring several others returned to work voluntarily Wednesday.

Hong Hou, chief executive officer for Emcore, told KRQE News 13 that about 150 out of 400 employees came back to work after Robert Reza killed two women Monday morning. Police said he intended to kill Adrienne Basciano, his estranged girlfriend and mother of their twin sons.

Michele Jackson who was working the day of the shooting returned to Emcore to pick up her truck. She said she had left it there after running out of the building just as the shooting began.

"You just don't think when you get up in the morning and you come to work somebody's going to die," said Jackson. "By the second shot--and it happened pop pop--by the second shot I knew."

She may have saved her co-workers lives. Because of her military experience she recognized the noise was gunfire, and it was right outside.

She then heard a co-worker scream: "Call 911."

"I started running out of the building just saying, you know, 'Get out. Get out. They're shooting everybody,'" she said. "I said, 'Get out, they're shooting.'

"So a lot of people followed me out of the building."

She and the group of her co-workers who followed her ran down Eubank Boulevard before police even arrived. She said she's grateful to those emergency responders, including those the security guards who secured the area.

Jackson said she spoke to so many people who were nearly hit by bullets.

The first two shots she heard were the ones that killed her friend, Sharon Cunningham.

"It's just it's just heartbreaking that she was taking supplies from Building 2 back to Building 1 where her office was," Jackson said. "I can't even imagine she left a little girl behind."

She said Cunningham was sweet, helpful and knew her job well.

But she wasn't the only victim. The rampage continued as Reza's next targeted Basciano.

She survived, and is in serious condition at the University of New Mexico Hospital.

But Reza didn't stop there. Armed with a semi-automatic pistol and reloading once he then killed Michele "Scrappy" Turner, shot several others, and then turned the gun on himself.

Jackson said other co-workers said they'd turned off lights so that Reza would think nobody was there. She said she spoke to many who just missed being shot.

"I was running for my life," she said.

The Emcore plant reopens Thursday with grief counselors on hand.

Jackson told News 13 that while the physical wounds may heal, the emotional ones will take longer. Still, the tragedy could've been much worse, she said.

"I believe we had angels protecting us," said Jackson. "Because for only two people to have passed away with 21 shots fired, that's a miracle."

Services for Cunningham, 47, will be Friday at French Lomas Chapel. There will be visitation at 4 p.m. and the rosary at 7 p.m. A funeral Mass is to be scheduled later.

Turner, 36, will be remembered also on Friday at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church. Visitation will be at 9:30 a.m. There will be a rosary at 10 a.m. followed by a funeral Mass at 10:30 a.m.