SOMERS — Students at Carthage College are speaking out after a shooting at Somers House Bar in Kenosha County left three people dead and three others injured early Sunday.
"It was a pretty normal night. Everybody was just chilling. Everything was just fine," said Luke Barach, one of the students at the bar when the shooting happened.
Barach and his friends had walked down the road from campus to the bar Saturday night, not knowing how the night would unfold.
"It looked like the guy that was taken out in the fight ended up leaving, then coming back, which was the scary part," Philip Bulatovic said.
What happened next changed their lives forever.
"All you heard was three gunshots," said Barach. "A lot of people ducked down. A lot of people stood there and didn't know what was going on. Then a couple of seconds later everyone just started running."
Barach said he went out the back door. "A bunch of us ran to the forest. We hid there for a little bit," Barach said.
He and his friends hid until it was safe to come out. They are still grappling with the shock of it all.
"It was just kind of hard to process. It didn't feel real," said Bulatovic.
Carthage College has taken measures to assure each student feels safe and seen.
"Faculty and staff across campus are working to be supportive and just listen and help in whatever ways they can, because there are things that will come up in coming days that we didn't know yesterday," said Dean of Students Kimberlie Goldsberry.
The dean said this was already a stressful week for students as they have their final exams scheduled. Due to the shooting, the college has given students the opportunity to opt-out.