A twelve-year-old boy miraculously survived a tragic killing in his grandparents’ home in New Town, North Dakota.
NEW TOWN, ND—A twelve-year-old born on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota survived a deadly shooting by faking his death as he lay under his slain brother’s body. Christian Schuster told the Rev. Grant Patterson that “he laid there and played dead until the shooter left the house.”
The pastor of the Bethel Lutheran Church in New Town said that he spoke with Christian about an hour after the killings.
Also killed in the shootings were his grandmother and three of his siblings. Martha Johnson, 64, and three of her grandchildren—Benjamin Schuster,13, Julia Schuster, 10, and Luke Schuster, 6, were killed according to Montrail County Sheriff Ken Halvorson. The police and the FBI identified Kalcie Eagle, 21, of New Town, as the man who’d committed suicide in nearby Parshall hours after the slayings.
The pastor and the sheriff said that Christian Schuster notified authorities of the shootings, saying an unknown man had killed his family.
“His brother was on top of him and as soon as he saw the guy leave the house, he called 911,” Halvorson said. “He hung up on the deputy and said he was going in to the other room to hide.”
Also saved was Christian’s sister Ava Schuster, 8, who was down the street sledding with friends. “She was sledding on a hill a block from her house with a bunch of her pals,” Patterson told the Associated Press. “If not for sledding hills, she may also have been murdered.”
The pastor said the children were living with their grandparents, Harley and Martha Johnson, for two months because their mother had been suffering from some “emotional issues” and had moved to the Grand Forks area on the other side of the state.
Harley Johnson had been out hunting at the time of the killings. “It’s a time of great confusion for Harley,” said Patterson. The children are being cared for by relatives. “He’s doing the best that anybody could.”
Martha Johnson was a longtime member of the church according to the pastor, and her grandchildren helped serve dinner at a church event recently. “They acted like little waitresses and waiters,” he told the AP. “They were all nice little kids.”
Three Tribes North Segment Council Rep. L. Ken Hall declined to comment through a spokesman, though a release was issued by the office of Three Tribes Chairman Tex Hall offering “prayers and sincere sympathies to the families of the victims in (Sunday’s) tragedies.” This mass killing has attracted a lot of attention as North Dakota has a relatively low murder rate.
