LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- She was shot 12 times and lived to tell the story, and now Whitney Austin, the Louisville mother who survived a mass shooting in Cincinnati, is writing her next chapter.
Austin launched Whitney Strong, a nonprofit focused on reducing gun violence by increasing responsible gun ownership.
"This is never going to leave my mind, and I am never going to allow the passion to die," Austin said.
On Sept. 6, police say 29-year-old Omar Enrique Santa Perez opened fire inside the Fifth Third Center, Fifth Third Bank's headquarters in downtown Cincinnati. Three people were killed before Perez was killed by police.
Austin, a Louisville resident and project manager for the bank, was heading into the building for a meeting when she stepped into the path of flying bullets.
"The difference between me and so many others who have lost loved ones in mass shootings is I got what I wanted," Austin said. "I got to come back home and see my family and my children."
According to the Center for Disease Control, there was a 31 percent increase in homicides involving firearms from 2014 to 2016. And there were 340 mass shootings in the United States just in 2018, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Austin's Whitney Strong nonprofit released its 2019 solutions road map, which includes pushing for better enforcement of laws already on the books for background checks, a suicide prevention campaign that incorporates gun ranges, gun shops, training for mental health professionals and the championing of a red flag law in Kentucky. It would allow family or household members, in addition to law enforcement, to petition a court to keep guns away from a dangerous person in crisis. To donate, CLICK HERE.
"You can go to a judge with a statement that says 'he is going through crisis, threatening to hurt himself or others, and we need path to removing that firearm, at least temporarily,'" Austin said.
Austin is approaching the effort from her own unique perspective as not just a survivor of a massacre but also a gun owner. The family of four, including Whitney, her two young children, and husband Waller, have 13 guns in their Highlands neighborhood home. She said she's trying to rally bi-partisan support behind ideas everyone can get behind.
"We wanted to be truly a centrist voice." Austin said. "Let's only go after the things that everyone is going to support, and let's only go after the things that are proven to be effective."
Austin is scheduled to make a presentation on red flag laws to the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Toledo, Ohio, on Wednesday.
Recovery
Seven months after the shooting, Austin bounces from occupational to physical and psychological therapy every week. The attack left her with 75 staples and a metal plate in her right arm. A tendon also ruptured in her left hand, which required a third surgery, but she calls herself, "The luckiest person around."
She is calm and focused talking about the traumatic experience but admits there have been flashbacks. The sounds and thoughts she heard and felt slumped in a pool of her own blood sometimes creep back into mind. In fact, the Oct. 22 shooting at the Jeffersontown Kroger triggered one of them. Police say two black people were killed at random.
"It's one thing to experience a mass shooting in Cincinnati, but I still felt safe in my city and in my home, and then all of a sudden, my city is no longer safe. So it was a difficult 48 hours," Austin admitted. "But then I said, 'Enough is enough, and this is not productive.' You have a method of being productive and it's called Whitney Strong."
She celebrates every gain, like the ability to drive again or hold her 5- and 7-year-old kids, the latter of which happened for the first time since the shooting just last week on spring break.
"She's taken this terrible thing and just only found good from it," said Waller Austin, Whitney's husband.
In terms of physical recover,y Austin said she's about 90 percent and hopes to return to work in the next couple months when she regains full motion in her arm and hand. The family added a therapy cat to the home as petting helps with range of motion. Whitney named him Alphonzo in honor of officer Alphonzo Staples, the Cincinnati officer who came to her rescued. Austin said she's prepared for that day she returns to the office and again takes that familiar trek to Cincinnati for her weekly business meeting.
"I don't know that I'll be able to go back there on Day 1, but at some point, I will muster up the strength to go back into that building," she said
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