Saint Francis Mass Shooting Survivors Recall Doctor's Tragic Death

Survivors of the Saint Francis mass shooting are sharing what they remember about the moments leading up to their doctor's death.

A patient and his wife were inside the room with Doctor Preston Phillips when a gunman turned a place of healing into a hospital of horrors.

Thomas Reed stared the shooter right in the face and was inches away from the gun. He and his wife, Heather, were left to wonder why the shooter spared their lives.

"I deal with pain every day. Every single day and have for quite some time. You know, but it wasn't, it wasn't just his back pain that caused him to do what he did," said Thomas Reed, survivor.

Thomas and Heather Reed remember every detail from that day. It was their first time meeting Doctor Phillips.

They said he was witty and kind. And for the first time, Thomas was hopeful he would find relief from his pain.

"I know he wanted to help me," said Thomas.

Thomas said he thought a nurse creaked open the door.

He was wrong, and looking back Thomas said every move the shooter made was calculated. He said that the shooter was calm and came in slowly.

"His hand is what you saw first, and he fired off the rounds," said Thomas.

"I was actually hit in the face with a couple of shell casings," said Heather Reed, survivor.

Doctor Phillips’ lifeless body fell to their feet and that's when they saw the shooter for the first time, as he stepped inside.

"It's kind of like a math equation. You go through it in your head, you know, and over the past year I've been through it 100 times, 100,000 times. You look at the distance, you look at your response time, you look at their response time. You look at the turning radius and you go, 'could I have?' You know and in that given instance, no matter how I play it out, I couldn't have done anything but died with him," said Thomas.

The same gun that was used to take Phillips' life seconds before, now pointed at Thomas.

"He was waiting for me to lunge for him, and I was next," recalled Thomas. "I just asked him not to and he didn't. He said, 'get out.' So that's what we did; grabbed her and you know, we left."

The shooter stepped to the side to let the Reeds pass and they were met with a hallway full of people staring blankly back at them.

"We're telling them you cannot stay. You have to leave," said Heather. "And they kept pausing," said Thomas. "Yeah, they were staring at us," said Heather.

Heather said it was like being in a dark room. Nobody could tell where the commotion came from; in that moment, where do you run?

"You have the fight or flight response, and you never know who is going to have that response and most people pause because they don't know which response they're going to take," said Heather.

Thomas grabbed everyone he could on the way out and they all pushed out the door.

Then it hit him: all their personal information was inside that patient room; things like his address.

"I had to call home and tell my daughters, 'look, get your stuff. Get out of the house. Go to the neighbors," said Thomas. "And then I had to go home and explain to them that they had almost lost us both at the same time."

Thomas and Heather have asked "why" more times than they can count.

"It just doesn't make sense. Why would you be in pain and make someone else feel your pain. It wasn't fair when you felt it. Why would it be fair when someone else felt it," said Thomas.

"The doctor's niece actually wrote us a letter," said Thomas.

But when Thomas sits down to write her back, the words won't come.

"I must have sat down 20 times to write her back, but what do you say," asked Thomas.

Doctor Phillips' niece told them how sorry she was; sorry it happened and sorry her uncle never got to help Thomas heal.

"I could sit there, and I could tell her all of the things that I thought, or went through, or been through since it happened, or what I felt during it or you know, any of it. But that don't matter," said Thomas. "She wanted me to know what kind of man he was, you know. But I already knew that."

Police said they found a letter on the shooter that said he intended to kill Dr. Phillips and "anyone who got in his way." That is why Thomas believes the shooter spared their lives.