Train hero Alek Skarlatos is a student at mass shooting college and ran out of DWTS rehearsals in panic to check his friends were OK
Alek Skarlatos told Ellen DeGeneres on Thursday that he would have been on the Umpqua Community College campus when a mass shooting took place if not for Dancing With The Stars.
The 22-year-old Paris train hero discussed the shooting at the Oregon campus in an Ellen episode that will air on Monday.
The Army National Guard Specialist while appearing on the chat show with his DWTS partner Lindsay Arnold, revealed he took classes in Snyder Hall where the shooting first erupted.
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Hitting home: Alec Skarlatos during an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show on Thursday discussed the Oregon school shooting that took place where he attends community college
'Right, I had classes in Snyder Hall. I mean, it’s a fairly small Community College and just the town in general everybody knows each other so with that many deceased I mean everybody’s going to know at least one person,' Skarlatos said.
' I mean I would have been there today if I didn’t agree to do this show. I had classes picked out and everything,' he said.
Skarlatos was rehearsing with Arnold, 21, when he learned that his college had been attacked, according to an article by TMZ.
Tight community: Alek posted a tweet asking for people to send prayers out to his college
He immediately left the studio and began making calls to check in on the safety of friends.
'Everyone send prayers out to ucc,' Skarlatos tweeted on Thursday to his more than 9,000 followers.
He later tweeted that he was returning to his hometown of Roseburg, Oregon.
A gunman identified as Chris Harper Mercer, 26, opened fire on Thursday morning at students at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg with authorities confirming 10 fatalities.
Dance show: Ellen urged Skarlatos and DWTS partner Lindsay Arnold to return and dance on the show
Skarlatos has been studying at the community college for a career in law enforcement.
He and his two childhood friends, Spencer Stone and Anthony Sadler, made headlines around the world in August when they heroically overpowered a man that opened fire on a train from Amsterdam to Paris.
The heroes were awarded France’s highest honor by President François Hollande in Paris on August 24.
It was announced in early September that Skarlatos had joined the cast of the ABC dancing competition show.
Train heroes: Skarlatos, Spencer Stone and Anthony Sadler are shown with President Obama last month after thwarting a terrorist attack on a train headed to Paris
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