‘I would do it again’

Even though a 12-inch, zipperlike scar crawls up Pete Husmann’s abdomen, and semihealed bullet wounds mar his shoulder, thigh and neck, the University of Idaho student said he would replay the night of May 19 the same way it happened.

“I would still have gone down to help. I would do it again,” the 20-year-old said Thursday at his mother’s home in Coeur d’Alene, where he is recuperating from two surgeries.

On May 19, the night that janitor Jason Hamilton wounded two, killed three and turned his gun on himself, Husmann had been relaxing at the apartment in Moscow he shares with two roommates.

The engineering student was nearing the end of a three-movie marathon of “Die Hard” flicks when he heard a hail of gunfire about 11 p.m., Husmann said.

Visions of Virginia Tech, where a student gunman killed 32 people this spring before committing suicide, flashed through his mind, he said.

Husmann stuffed a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol in the pocket of a loose-fitting jacket. He hid it, knowing police officers would be on edge and on the lookout, the Post Falls High School graduate said.

He pedaled his mountain bike about a mile to where Hamilton, armed with two high-powered rifles, was carrying out his rampage.

“I knew someone would be hurt,” said Husmann, and he worried that law enforcement wouldn’t respond in time. Nearing the Latah County Courthouse, he abandoned his bike and took cover behind a retaining wall.

“I didn’t want to reveal myself too much,” he said.

Some law enforcement officers have criticized citizens who get involved in dangerous situations. A civilian trying to help could become another victim, Moscow Police Chief Dan Weaver told The Spokesman-Review last month.

Husmann said he hoped his actions distracted the sniper from other police officers approaching Hamilton’s hiding spot.

In his hiding place near the courthouse, he could hear a car alarm blaring in the parking lot, but the gunfire had stopped.

Husmann said he decided to turn back and approach from another route when a spark of bullets lit up the pavement around him. He took off running.

A bullet – one of nearly 200 Hamilton fired that night – ripped into his back, and Husmann fell to the ground.

Husmann, an avid hunter, thought, “this is what a deer feels like,” he said. “It felt like a balloon expanding inside of me,” and it hurt to breathe.

Husmann learned later the bullet knocked off a 2-inch piece of rib, collapsed his lung and tore into his liver and diaphragm.

As he lay on his back, the shower of bullets continued, and Husmann said he could see the glint of the muzzle flash in the distance.

A second bullet grazed his windpipe and ripped into his right shoulder, Husmann said. Another struck his upper right thigh.

He could see the muscles spilling out of his shoulder like raw hamburger, Husmann said.

He knew if he stayed, the sniper would continue pelting him with bullets, Husmann said. A surge of adrenaline brought him to his feet.

He ran about 60 yards across the parking lot and away from the First Presbyterian Church, where Hamilton was holed up. He scrambled for cover behind a car, where he found others hiding.

Husmann, an Eagle Scout, asked for a belt to fashion a tourniquet for his leg and help to compress the wound on his chest.

Paramedics brought him to Gritman Medical Center, where he was kept for a week.

His doctors tell him he’s lucky to be alive, Husmann said. The bullets narrowly missed his esophagus, collarbone and a large artery in his thigh. Some of his deltoid muscle was dislodged by a bullet, and he lost 2 liters of blood, Husmann said.

On Thursday, he pulled out his blood-stained clothing from that night: a white muscle tank top and black fleece pants that paramedics cut away to tend to his wounds.

He’s keeping them – at least for now – to show his father, who lives in Great Falls, Mont.

The family has lived in the Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene area for about 17 years, said his mother, Janice Husmann.

On May 19, she was visiting family in Mesa, Ariz., when a medic called to say her son had been in an accident, she said. She assumed it was a car crash until she learned shots had been fired.

She thought her son had been struck by stray bullets or someone had broken into his apartment. She said she found out about the shooting from a television news report during a layover in the Seattle airport.

“I just started sobbing,” said Husmann, who works for The Salvation Army. “I was so far away.”

Friends and strangers – from as far away as Africa and Australia – have called Pete Husmann, sent e-mails and left notes on his MySpace and Facebook Web pages, he said.

Many call him a hero, a title Husmann shrugs off.

“I’m not a hero. I went down and got shot,” said Husmann, a lean swimmer with buzzed hair and a wide smile. “I tried to help. I didn’t get to.”

He’d like his experience to inspire others to find courage in times of crisis.

“I hope other people don’t turn their heads,” Husmann said. “I give all the glory to the Lord, just keeping me through it.”