Andy Murray Survived School Shooting As Child

Andy Murray survived a school shooting 16 years ago, running away from a gunman who killed 16 children in his primary school just in time to spare his own life.

Murray, who this week fought and won his way to his first US Open championship and earlier this summer won Olympic gold in London, would not have been able to achieve any of the milestones had he not avoided shooter Thomas Hamilton, Radar Online noted.

Andy Murray was just eight when he survived the school shooting that claimed the lives of one adult and 16 children, all between the ages of five and six. The notorious attack took place in Murray’s hometown of Dunblane in Scotland and, like the attack at Columbine High School two years later has become synonymous with mass shootings, Radar Online noted.

Until recently, Andy Murray had not talked much about surviving the school shooting but has opened up in a recent book. Murray talked about how he was walking to the gym when the shooting began but dove under a desk in his headmaster’s office to hide.

In his autobiography Hitting Back, Andy Murray talked about how the school shooting affected him.

“Some of my friends’ brothers and sisters were killed,” he wrote. “I have only retained patchy impressions of that day, such as being in a classroom singing songs.”

Hamilton, who was a scout leader in Andy Murray’s hometown, killed himself at the crime scene and never revealed his motivation for the attack. Murray said his mother sometimes gave Hamilton rides around town when he needed it.

Andy Murray wrote:

“The weirdest thing was that we knew the guy. He had been in my mum’s car. It’s obviously weird to think you had a murderer in your car, sitting next to your mum.”

“That is probably another reason why I don’t want to look back at it.”

“It is just so uncomfortable to think that it was someone we knew from the Boys Club…Then to find out he’s a murder was something my brain couldn’t cope with.”

“I could have been one of those children.”

The tennis star has been difficult to read at times, AFP noted. Though he is known as a joker among friends, he displays a quiet and serious demeanor at press conferences, though AFP noted that the fact that Andy Murray survived the school shooting and still holds the scars of the event could play a big part in that.