[music playing] I was soaked in blood
and bone and brain. I thought, if I had
pushed myself on top of him, it'll take one whole body for
this fire to burn through. That gun was going to come
straight down and finish me off. I just can't get over
the look in his eyes, and me pleading and begging. [music playing] We were located in Mumbai. Used to be Bombay,
and we were staying in one of the nicest hotels
there the, Oberoi Hotel. I got served my food, and then
very shortly afterwards, we heard gunfire. But it was in the distance. And Michael said, well,
that sounds like gunshots. And I agreed with him. I said, it does
sound like gunshots, and he goes, well, I believe
I'll go check and see what that is all about. So I watched him walk
out into the lobby. The restaurant was wide open to
the lobby and kind of disappear around the corner, and
we resumed our talk, and he came back maybe
two or three minutes later and assured us that
everything was OK. He said that the hotel staff
had said that it was just a bunch of hooligans and for
us not to worry about it, to please just enjoy our meal. I suppose I could
have counted to 30, and that's when we heard
the gunfire in the hotel, and it was deafening. It was the loudest
thing I'd ever heard. I told everyone,
get under the table now, which is what we did. And before I knew,
the gunfire was on us. And I knew I'd been hit. I felt my arm, a very sharp
pinch, and a lot of casings hitting me. Everyone was in a panic. There was a lot of screaming and
broken glass, loud explosions, continuous range of bullets. And as a meditator
for many years, I had never experienced
anything like this. Time seemed to slow down. I actually felt a foot
standing on my pant's leg. He was stepping over my body
and firing at the same time. When you've got someone
standing that close to you, literally one leg between yours,
firing at the room that loud, and your initial response
would be to jump. And yet I knew that if I
did that, that gun was going to come straight down
and finish me off. I sat up in my
bed, and from my bed, I could see into the den. It was a straight
view to the den, and in the light of
the den, I could see that there was very dark smoke. When I was a child, there was
a public service announcement on that Dick Van Dyke did. They would go through a
number of tips in case you were on a fire. Stay low, feel the
door, have two ways out. So I got on the floor, and I
started to crawl into the den to kind of investigate. The closer I got to the den,
the more thick the smoke became. I felt the door. It was warm enough for me to
know that there was a fire. I couldn't tell
how close it was, but it didn't seem
that the door was hot. So I wasn't too concerned
that it was too close. He opened his eyes and
looked straight at mine, and all I said was,
there's a fire. Come with me. I told him stay behind me. Stay on the floor. I proceeded back on my route
up the stairs with Terry behind me. When I got to the top
of the stairs this time and felt the door,
it was much warmer than it had been
moments earlier. I felt the doorknob
and it was hot. Not so much that I couldn't hold
it, but definitely retaining heat because it was metal. And when I opened the door,
unfortunately, at that moment, all the Dick Van
Dyke learned not to burn training I had been
exercising minutes earlier went out the window. The flames were eating the
curtains away and eating the walls of that window,
of our picture window, in our living room. They were up onto the ceiling. You couldn't even see furniture. It was just a ball of flames. [music playing] I had been notified that
he had been electrocuted. The ambulance came to the
plant, checked him out, everything was fine. But however, I do believe
that that affected him because he changed. He was not like the
person I had married. As time went on, he
became more possessive and more controlling. There was one occasion. We were in bed at
night, and I woke up during the middle
of the night, I know, there's no
doubt in my mind, that I felt a knife
going down my back. I could feel it, and I leaned
straight up from the bed. And the light was
on, and he was there. He was just sitting there. He said, what are you doing? I said, nothing. But I knew that something was
going on, and I just said, you know what? I said, I think I'm going
to go down here in the den. I just don't really feel well. He walked down,
stood at the door, and said, why don't you
come on back to bed? I said, no, you know, I'm
just going to stay here. He went on back to bed,
and I'm sure at some point I went to sleep. But I just laid there on
the couch not knowing. I was fearful, but I never
thought anything would happen. I come in the door,
went in the bathroom, started taking my clothes
off, and he just went crazy. Where have you been? What have you been doing? I knew then by the
way he was acting, I knew something was
fixing to happen. So as fast as I
could, I was trying to put my clothes back on. I managed somehow to get
to the car, inside the car, and I'm trying to
put the key in, and his face comes straight
through the driver's side window. We'd gotten under the
table, and I felt my arm. I felt a strong pinch
so I knew I'd been hit, and I felt a lot of
casings hitting me. I remember Naomi, and
she was frightened, and she was screaming. And he was trying
to get her attention and trying to get her to
settle down in a very firm and loving tone, just saying
her name over and over. My immediate concern was
we need to stop talking and stop drawing
attention to ourselves. It's obvious that
they're shooting at us. So I reached out. He was right next to me. And I put my hand on the back of
his neck, and I was like, Alan, and he looks at me. He doesn't say anything, but we
locked eyes, and I just said, we need to be in our stillness. And so he kind of gave me a
knowing look like he knew what I was saying, and
at that moment, I just buried my head
down to play dead. And in seconds, I felt his body. I felt the impact of
the bullet in his head, and I felt his body release. Then I felt the warmth
of blood soaking my hand. Looked over at Linda, and
she looked back at me. It was a look of horror. I had my head wrapped in
a white cloth, head shawl, and I couldn't see it, but I
was soaked in blood and bone and brain. And I took her hands, and
I said, we really need to-- we really need to be
quiet now and play dead. There was still a lot
of chaos going on. A constant barrage of
bullets coming definitely from more than one source. It was like we were
suddenly in a war zone. [music playing] I stepped out into the
foyer, at which point I was staring at the
back door to the outside. And to the right of me,
was the rest of the house. And the house was an inferno. There wasn't a wall in our
house that wasn't wood. Not be outside, not the inside. It was just plain, knotty pine
with about 10 coats of shellac on it. The heat intensity
was like nothing you could ever possibly imagine. It was roaring, and when
you say it was roaring, the fire is actually loud. I mean, it's as if it's a
monster, and it's growling, and it's coming to get you. There's no escaping this. I pushed Terry with my
right hand further behind me as to shield him
from the flames. I don't think I wanted him
to see it, let alone feel it. Once he stepped out, after
I was further into the fire, he was in-- he could see the fire. He started to scream. He screamed for my father like
you would scream if somebody was killing you. I can remember picturing
my mother and my father and my sisters who were
much younger than us, seven and nine,
outside the door. And the responsibility
that goes along with being the oldest child,
I knew that it was my job to get us out. I would get Terry and I out. And with that, I proceeded
to try to open the back door. And I kept turning the knob
left and right, left and right. My only mission was
get this door open. [music playing] There was glass everywhere. There was blood all
over my shirt, my eyes. Our daughter was
young at that time. And I had thought, I need
to get her, but I didn't. I didn't think I could
make it back out. He had got in his vehicle,
and he was behind me. He followed me to
my parents' house. I was still scared
to death of him. My parents were there. I felt safe. I knew that they would
not let anything happen to me or my daughter. He was very-- begging
me to forgive him. He was so sorry. He didn't know what
happened to him. What came over him. Could he just stay
there the night with us? And I gave in and said he could. I was still very
angry but scared also. When I went back home, it
was just like another day, just like nothing had happened. We did not discuss any of it. It was just kind of like a done
deal and swept under the rug. As time went on, he was kind
of like a Jekyll and Hyde. I always felt like I was
walking on needles not knowing if I was going to say something
that would set him off. I became scared. Scared of him. Scared to leave him. Scared to stay with him. He didn't know that I had filed. He would not leave the house. So I just lived there in
it not knowing what to do. I felt like if I
just stayed there and go through it until
the divorce is final, then hopefully the
law could protect me. During the day,
on my way to work. I would take Samantha
to the Christian daycare where she stayed. I always took her, and
I always picked her up. I was in the bathroom
getting ready to go to work, and he came in there and
told me that he was going to take Samantha to daycare. And I thought, you
know, that is so weird. But that would be wonderful. That will save me some time. So he took her to daycare. I was still in the bathroom
getting ready for work. I had on a pink night
shirt, rollers in my hair. He was standing there. He had a pistol. You know, both hands
on it, straight out. And I yelled, Scott,
what are you doing? And he shot. An automatic rifle shoots
800 bullets a minute, and so it's deafening. There's a lot of screaming
and broken glass, and I didn't know how many
gunmen there were at the time because it was continuous. Suddenly, we hear a voice
coming from the kitchen, and we believe it
was one of the chefs or maybe one of
the workers there. And he called out
to us, if you want-- if you want to live,
you better come now. There was the gunfire from
the middle of the lobby. So it was perfect timing
for us to make a move. So I tried to get up,
and my arm was twitching, and I looked over at my
arm, and I could see inside where I'd been hit in my arm. Then I noticed that I
had been shot in my leg, and there was a lot of blood,
and I tried to put my hand, but my hand was shaking. I thought maybe I can
crawl across the floor, and I tried that, and this
is all a matter of seconds. And then I don't know
what made me think of it. I just said, drag me. And I threw my hands up. My savior from the
kitchen runs out of safety and takes my wrists and
drags me to the kitchen. And I remember all these bullet
casings, very warm still. And I remember, as he
was dragging me seeing, oh, my head was turned over, and
my point of view is the ground, and there were so many bodies. And that's when I knew. No one's going to
get out of here. They don't want anyone
to get out of here alive. [music playing] The fire was an orange color,
and it was so bright and so intense and so loud. And because it was
consuming this, you know, bonfire of
wood, if you will. I mean, it really was. You might as well have just,
you know, poured gasoline on. And I kept turning the knob
left and right, left and right. You know, my hands were
burnt from holding that door. I don't-- I never took my hands
off that knob because I was so fixated on getting us out. He had a undershirt on, and I
can remember he kept pulling it up and twisting it back
and forth around his torso because it started
to stick to him. Whatever the fibers were, were
starting to melt to his body, and he could feel-- the intensity of the
heat was getting to him. And he just kept
screaming, daddy, daddy. However, the more he screamed,
the more he sucked in. I was not happy that
he kept screaming. But not for any other
reason other than it was, you know, bothering me and
keeping me from my mission. I wasn't thinking that my
father would hear us crying. I assumed he was already out. He had gotten my mother out. He had gotten the girls out. It was my job to join him. The fire wrapped
around the living room. So it was all the walls that
I could see in front of me and the side wall, which,
you know, I lost sight of at some point through the
doorway, were all in flames. And it just kept getting closer. After my brother continued
to scream probably for a good three
or four minutes, I felt his grip on
my waist let go. And it was then that I
think that I really thought, oh my God, we're going to die. [music playing] And I yelled Scott,
what are you doing? And he shot. The first time he shot me
in the head right up here. I'm laying on the bathroom
floor, half in the bathroom, half in the hall. And I've got my head
up pleading, begging. So I try to get up. I do get up, and I grab
a hold to the bathroom door with this hand, and he
shoots again in my shoulder here. The face of the-- the face of the drawer
on the bathroom, I could pull it completely
off when he shot, and we just both dropped. And my arm, yes,
it was attached, but it felt like it was
hanging on by a thread. I tried to get up again, and
he shoots again in my head right here above my ear. And I fall back down. And the floor was cool, and I
wasn't hurting, but I thought, I can just close my eyes
and just die right here, and I'll be better off. And then Samantha just kept
popping back in my head. I get up again, and he
shoots me in the back. I'm low to the ground so I
can see now what has happened. And I see all these bodies. So he pulled me into the
kitchen and immediately dragged me in far enough where
they could shut and barricade the door. At that time, we heard
the gunfire coming back towards the restaurant, and
they began firing at the door. I'm noticing now that I'm
in a giant pool of blood, and I'm trying to figure out
what the best course of action is. I'm on the floor, and I
hear something hit the wall, and so I kind of
look, and I see what looks like a
miniature cylindrical, like a Coke can, silver,
and it's clicking. And I thought, it's a grenade. And so all I said
was live grenade. And at that point,
somebody said, we've got to get out of here. I knew I couldn't move. I'm like, oh, it's going
to go off any second. You know, what are
we going to do? And two, I guess, the
waitstaff scooped me. One under this arm and leg, and
one under the other arm and leg and took me down this
spiral staircase. We all went down these steps,
and there was an exit door, but it was locked. [music playing] I saw him on the floor. That's when fear set in
because that's when I realized, we're not going to make it out. The next thing I knew, I was
on the ground next to him, and I was in pain. There were tiles in the hallway. My face hit the tiles and
chipped all of my teeth. I strained to look with
my peripheral vision as far right as I possibly
could because that's where the fire was. At this point, it had completely
devoured our living room and was on its way to
us like a predator. The heat, I thought, this is it. This is when we're going to die. I kept thinking, I'm
supposed to get us out. And Terry's on the floor. I didn't know whether he
was dead or just passed out. And here I am. I can't get up. Again, I had an overwhelming
sense of obligation to my parents to
make them proud. So I thought if I pushed
myself on top of him, it'll take one whole body for
this fire to burn through. And by that time, somebody
must have called the fire department, or my
parents have called them. I could not lift
my shoulders up. So as the fire got closer, and
at this point, I could feel-- it felt as if I was burning. So it was only when I decided,
OK, if I really kind of push myself with my right hand
and with my right foot, I can slide myself over him. And it was at that point
when I got on top of him that the fire had
reached the dining room. And the next-- its next
destination was us. [music playing] I was trying to talk to him. I was hollering,
what are you doing? Why are you doing this? We'll get you some help. But it didn't matter. He just kept shooting. And then Samantha just kept
popping back in my head. I get up again, and he shoots. Shoots me in the back. The one thing I will
never, ever forget was his eyes because they
looked like they were-- he was staring
straight through me. It didn't even look like him. I knew it was him, but
this wasn't the person that I married. I just can't get over
the look in his eyes, and me pleading and begging. And he would just keep shooting. [music playing] RUDRANI: When we got there, all
of us, of course, went down. There was a door there,
but it was locked. So the other gentleman started
just throwing his entire body up against the door,
and I thought he's going to break his shoulder. I mean, he was just
hurling himself, and the noises he
was making, you could tell that it was painful. And finally, the
door was flying open, and they're still holding
me, and we walk out into the street. And that's when I
realized, oh my goodness. It's not just in our hotel. It's everywhere. Mumbai's under attack. You could hear bombs going
off, or at least explosions. People screaming in
Hindi, screaming in fear. It was just total chaos. It was like we were
suddenly in a war zone, and there were cabs
running all over the place. They were trying to stop a cab. They didn't want to stop. And so the one that
broke the door down, he comes, and he kind of hits
one of the cabs on the hood and gets him to stop. And they open the back
seat, and I get in. That's when I can really see
what's happening with my leg, and I'm now using my
left hand to cover it. The gentleman gets
in the front seat and starts speaking in
Hindi to the driver, and they take us down the
road to Bombay Hospital. [music playing] I thought to myself, if
I could just flop myself over because I was on my back,
I could cover Terry's body. I thought the fire would
be there in seconds the way that it was moving. And I thought, it'll take an
entire body for the flames to burn through, and
then Terry will be OK. So I pushed myself
on top of him, and that was the
last thing I remember is feeling him beneath me. I don't recall how many
seconds I was on top of him when I finally suffered cardiac
arrest and stopped breathing. So when the firemen got there,
I was, I guess you would say, dead on arrival, their arrival. And when they axed
down the door, it threw the two initial firemen
six feet from the house because of the backdraft. And the fire then
just intensified that much more and probably, although
it saved our lives, burnt us even more severely because
it was as if it just fed the oven that we were in. [music playing] I knew at that point
that I had just better lay here and play dead, because
if I didn't, I would be. And he said, I killed you. Now, I'm going to kill myself. And even though what he had
done to me, I wanted to say, you know, please. Don't-- don't do this. But I knew if I said a word,
he would shoot me again. He sat down in the floor,
and put the gun in his mouth. So I just closed my
eyes, and I heard a shot. And I waited a few minutes,
and opened my eyes, and he was just laid back on his
back on the floor with the gun by his side. I never ever thought
about calling 911. All I could think about was
getting out of the house away from him. I couldn't stand up, but
I somehow got in the car, backed out of the driveway, and
was driving down the street. I had no idea where I was going. I had no idea what
I was going to do. I just knew I was
getting away from him. Still in my mind, I
was still terrified, thinking that he's not dead. I'm going to be
in this hospital, and I'm going to be in
this room by myself, and he's going to
come finish me. I still have a bullet
in my back an 1/8 of an inch from my spine. I cannot have surgery to remove
the bullet because they fear I'll be paralyzed
from the waist down. I believe I survived
by the grace of God, and I pray that what I
say can help someone maybe learn from my experience. My daughter did give
me the will to live. I knew that I had
to try for her. When I first
woke up, I didn't-- I obviously didn't
really know where I was. I underwent dozens
and dozens of surgery. The whole front of me is burned. 65% of me is burned. Third-degree burns, and my
knee has fourth-degree burns. They took skin from
whatever was not burned. So the backs of my calves,
the backs of my thighs, my rear end, and my back. Finding out that my parents
and my sisters had died was more terrifying
than anything else that I had to deal with
up until that point. The idea of not having them
at 14 was unfathomable. I specifically
remember thinking, my father won't walk
me down the aisle. And my mother won't be a
grandmother to my children. And how I was so lucky to have
such a wonderful, wonderful family. And I guess, in that
regard, I was blessed. Because in 14 short years,
they made me who I am. I survived because God
has a purpose for me, and that purpose is to help
others, give them the strength and the hope to get through
what devastation fires can bring to people's lives. After the cab ride
to the hospital, when they finally
got me on a gurney, my leg started to remind me
that something had happened, and then the pain
was excruciating. And I dialed the number. It was like magic. There was my husband
on the other end. He was brining-- just a minute. Sorry, and he was brining
the Thanksgiving turkey for his family in Kentucky. He knew something was wrong. I guess the tip was--
the tip off was-- the very first thing
I said, and I probably sounded kind of shaky, it
was, I love you very much. And he said, I love you too. What's wrong? And I said, I love
you very much. And he said, what's wrong? And I was like,
we've been attacked. I've been shot, but I'm OK. I'm in a hospital. And then I had to have
surgery, that there was still a bullet in my leg. And he said to me, all you
have to do is stay alive. [music playing] They ranged from the age
of 18 to 28 years of age. They looked like children. I survived because
I was supposed to. I'm here I can come up
with a million answers. I survived because
I had the tools. I survived because
it wasn't my time. It could have gone either
way in a split second. It went this way. Life is more joyful today
because it went this way.
