KMOX’s Debbie Monterrey was on the air Monday when a school shooting took place at her 17-year-old daughter’s school. The shooter injured six people and killed two. Montgomery reported on the incident as her daughter texted her from the school. She was unharmed in the shooting.
From the KMOX website: “My kids text me a lot while I’m on the air. So I’m used to my phone blowing up a lot while I’m doing radio, they text a lot. So I looked down at my phone and my daughter had texted me in all caps, ‘Oh my god, there’s an intruder in the building.’” My first thought, I mean, you’ve known me for years. I don’t panic easily. I’m pretty, you know, all right, let’s, you know, I’m sure there’s a logical explanation. Let’s not get worked up.”
But then another text came in saying it wasn’t a drill. Monterrey asked her daughter if she was okay, if she was scared, what was going on. Caeli said she heard banging, but wasn’t sure if it was gunshots, then heard yelling, and that the SWAT team was coming.
The station reports Monterrey stating that another text came in saying it wasn’t a drill. “I’m thinking, Oh, my God, we’re live on the air. I’m running the control board, you know,” she said. “So for listeners who don’t know what our studio looks like, I’m literally running the Starship Enterprise live on the air, in-studio guests that we’re interviewing, while my daughter is texting this to me. And I’m trying to maintain my composure. And I’m scared for her.”
Eventually Monterrey’s daughter texted that she and her classmates had gotten out safely. “And as soon as we went to commercial…I just started crying because I was like, okay, she’s alive. She’s safe. But then I did another 15, 20 minutes on the air trying to be a professional broadcaster, knowing that my daughter, you know, I sadly have to say I’ve reported on dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of school shootings. But this was my daughter’s school. And it was quite surreal.”
