Cincinnati shooting survivor Whitney Austin ‘plays dead’ during rampage

A mother of two shot a dozen times after a shooter opened fire inside Cincinnati’s Fifth Third Center recalls the moments she thought were her last.

“Immediately as I pushed that door is when I was hit with the bullets,” Whitney Austin said.

The 37-year-old said she survived the shooting by “playing dead.” She is one of two survivors in the rampage that left three others dead. Police also shot the shooter in his tracks.

Based at Fifth Third in Louisville, Kentucky, bank executive Austin said she was on the phone, making a conference call, when she walked through Fountain Square that day. Because of that, she said, she did not notice any signs that something was off.

The bullets hit her the moment she entered the building’s revolving door.

The day started out normal enough for her in Louisville, where she lives with her husband, Waller, and their children ages 5 and 7.

“So I was helping get the kids ready for school to leave and I remember, headed out the back door, they wanted me to kiss them twice,” she said.

Austin said it was that memory of her kids that willed her to survive after she was shot 12 times Sept. 6.

“A bullet grazed my left foot, a bullet grazed my neck ... It was mainly a burning sensation all on the right side of my body,” she said.

The shooter shot and trapped Austin inside the Fifth Third building’s revolving door as she tried to come in for a meeting.

“I tried to make a move and I just -- I couldn’t move at all. As I processed that, along with the blood that I’m coughing up ... it was a dead end. There’s nothing else I can do. I can’t get out of this situation. I’m scanning Fountain Square. I don’t see anybody to save me, and at that point I just, ‘All right, this is it, I’m dying.’ That’s what I thought.”

In what she thought were her last moments, she tried to say goodbye to her family.

“I thought at least I can talk to my husband and say goodbye to him. So I moved by body to try and get at my phone,” she said. “When I moved is when he shot me again.”

That’s when she decided to play dead.

“And about that time is also when I made eye contact with officer (Al) Staples, which was one of the police officers tracking the shooter behind me. So that gave me a lot of hope. I kept talking to him, saying, ‘I have a 5- and a 7-year-old, they need their mother, you save me.’

“My kids are everything to me. I mean, that was my motivation through all of it.”

Less than three weeks later, Austin said she’s not sad for herself. She and Brian Sarver, 45, survived the shooting that left Luis Felipe Calderón, 48, Prudhvi Raj Kandepi, 25, and Richard Newcomer, 64, dead.

“When I cry, it’s because I think about Luis and Prudhvi and Richard. that’s why I cry. Their situation and their families’ situation is entirely different than mine. What do I have to be sad about? I survived. I now have an opportunity to make a real difference in this world. there’s not sorrow, there’s not sadness,” she said.

Austin just announced she is launching a nonprofit foundation, WhitneyStrong, which she said will focus on responsible gun ownership.

Got a tip? Call our 24-hour monitored line, 937-259-2237, or send it to newsdesk@cmgohio.com