Survivors weigh in on 2001 Santana High School shooter's possible release
Two staffers who were among those shot but not killed at Santana High School in 2001 tell NBC 7 that the shooter doesn’t deserve early release.
Andy Williams was granted re-sentencing on Tuesday, which the District Attorney says will lead to him getting out of prison with little to no supervision.
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Peter Ruiz was a 23-year-old security guard working at Santana High School when he was shot three times by then 15-year-old Williams. Twenty-five years later, he’s left with one question.
“What can we do to keep him in?” he said.
Ruiz still carries one of those bullets in his body and the memory of that fateful day.
“Now, all the sudden, something happens in the real world or another school, even our situation right now — it just brings back a lot of memories,” Ruiz said.
Tim Estes was a student teacher at the time and came face-to-face with the shooter not far from his classroom.
“Every day I stand up, alright, another good day,” he said.
Estes was shot in the side. The bullet went right through him.
“It’s too hard to live with all that being pissed and negative about anything,” Estes said.
Estes and Ruiz were shot fleeing the same restroom — not at the same time, but only a few minutes apart. Estes was hit with one of the first rounds Williams fired. Ruiz heard those shots, ran to the restroom, then turned around to clear the students from the hallway.
“Years later, students who witnessed it say they saw him aiming for not just me but the back of my head. For whatever reason, they went passed me,” Ruiz said.
Despite their injuries, the two survivors stayed in education. Estes is the head football coach and a teacher at Santana. His classroom is two doors down from the restroom where he was shot.
“I wanted to teach, and I wanted to coach and do stuff, and I wasn’t going to let something like that change that,“ Estes said.
Ruiz is head of security and girls’ basketball coach at Steele Canyon High School.
“We don’t have any combative weapons. All we carry is a radio and our wits. We don’t wear bulletproof vests,” Ruiz said.
Both agree that Williams doesn’t deserve early release, but after Judge Lisa Rodriguez granted him re-sentencing, he’ll likely get it.
“You never know what his actual intentions were then or does he still have those intentions toward anybody else,” Estes said.
“If he doesn’t understand why he did it, what keeps him from wanting revenge or finishing what he started that day,“ Ruiz said.
For these two survivors, there is life after this shared tragedy. What’s next for Williams though conjures up feelings they’d rather forget.
Williams is scheduled for a hearing Feb. 9 in juvenile court. The DA is appealing Rodriguez’s ruling.