Byron J. Schnell-Davis oral history interview, 2024 July 30

Oral history interview with Byron J. Schnell-Davis conducted by Claytee D. White and Stefani Evans on July 30, 2024 for the UNLV Remembers: an Oral History of the 6 December 2023 Shootings project. In this interview, Schnell-Davis recalls crossing Pida Plaza towards to the Flora Dungan Humanities building (FDH), where about twenty classmates had just begun setting up for an informal end-of-semester final session when a classmate heard from her father, a UNLV professor, that they should leave because there had been a shooting on campus. As their instructor had received no such message yet, he urged the class to remain in place until they knew more. When the University Police Department alerts began a few moments later, Hebbler and his students arranged themselves against the walls of the windowless classroom, and Schnell-Davis pushed his table in front of the door. He describes the sounds they heard and the barricade they erected in front of the door, using his water bottle to jam the door handle. He texted four words to his parents and friends: "I'm safe. More later." After about an hour, the police came to the door and identified themselves. As Hebbler opened it, they pointed their loaded automatic weapons directly at him. Hebbler and his students were evacuated to the parking lot across from campus, and they dispersed. Digital audio and transcript available.