‘He Never Said a Word,’ Guard Recalls

It was a fleeting second that lasted forever: the instant that campus security guard Peter Ruiz made eye contact with the pint-sized gunman who had allegedly just fired three bullets into his back and was to shoot 14 other people before surrendering to sheriff’s deputies.

Immobilized by a bullet wedged in his pelvic bone, Ruiz lay on the ground waving one arm at the young man--”Like, hey, hey. It’s time to stop.”

Instead, he said, the armed teenager retreated to the bathroom he had staked out as a firing position to reload his eight-shot, .22-caliber revolver. But not before quickly glancing at Ruiz, who at that moment thought he was going to die.

“We made eye contact, and he gave me a smirk. He never said a word. For that split second I thought he was going to come out and finish me off. But he went back into the bathroom, and I heard more shots,” said Ruiz, who was lying about 30 feet from the bathroom door.

On Thursday, Ruiz, 22, relived Monday’s nightmare, in which two students were killed and 13 other people were wounded at Santana High School in Santee. Charles Andrew Williams, 15, was arrested in the shooting.

Ruiz, an ex-football player, 5 feet 11 and 250 pounds, looked remarkably well for a man shot three times. He had just driven home from the doctor’s office before meeting with a reporter.

Two of the bullets that struck Ruiz passed through his body--one in his right shoulder and another that entered his lower right back and exited on the right side below his rib cage. The third round lodged in his pelvis.

The day’s tragic events began about 9:22 a.m., when Ruiz heard what he thought were students playing with firecrackers in the bathroom. As he approached, two terrified students ran out without saying a word. They were uninjured.

A third student, also uninjured, walked out slowly as if in shock, Ruiz said. “He was shaking and couldn’t talk. He pointed inside and continued walking.”

Inside, Ruiz found two students lying by the urinals. One, shot in the back of the head, was motionless. The other yelled, “Get out! Get out!” Ruiz did not see the armed teenager, who was hiding behind a privacy partition, apparently reloading.

Confusion reigned. Frightened students were running in every direction, yelling and crying, he said. Ruiz walked to the small campus quad and called a supervisor on the radio, alerting him to the injured students in the bathroom.

“My main concern was the safety of the kids. I was trying to keep them away from the bathroom,” said Ruiz. “Then I felt a big thump on the small of my back.”

He walked about 15 feet and collapsed. No matter how hard he tried to stand up, Ruiz’s legs would not respond. He never felt the other two rounds that entered and exited his body.

Ruiz rolled over on his side and continued directing students away from the bathroom and adjoining hallway. At one point, he turned and saw “Andy’s head pop out from the bathroom, looking down the hallway.”

The alleged shooter turned around, and it was then that their eyes met.

“I was out in the open, with nothing between me and him. He could’ve walked out and shot me again. I don’t know why he didn’t.”

Despite the pain and terror, Ruiz said he feels no anger toward Williams, who he had seen on campus but never spoken with.

“I don’t think I was singled out. Andy just saw me there and shot. He had never given me any trouble. There’s nothing I can do to change the past. I can only go forward.”

Ruiz insists he has overcome the trauma, but the burly man showed a brief display of emotion when he talked about seeing his mother at the hospital for the first time after the shooting.

“I kind of lost it. I began crying when I saw my mom. I also cried when they took me out of X-rays, and I fully realized what had happened. All the kids who were hurt,” he said.

In addition to working campus security for the Grossmont Unified High School District, Ruiz works retail sales at a department store and is an assistant coach for the Mt. Helix High School junior varsity football team in La Mesa.

He also attends Grossmont Community College, where he is studying for a law enforcement career.