Must-See: Child Describes on CNN How He Was Ready to ‘Go Down Fighting’ in Colorado School Shooting

As if news of Tuesday’s school shooting in Colorado wasn’t sobering enough, twelve year-old survivor Nate Holley brought the tragedy to riveting life by describing the scene inside the classroom where he hid, hand on a metal baseball bat, ready to “go down fighting” if necessary.

On Wednesday’s edition of CNN Newsroom With Brooke Baldwin, Nate was interviewed by host Brooke Baldwin, along with his father Steve Holley. In just a few seconds, young Nate brought the story to life with observant detail.

“So, Nate, how are you doing?” Baldwin asked the sixth-grader.

“I’m doing okay,” Nate said. “It was incredibly scary during it, and at least half the kids in my class broke into tears when it started happening. It was incredibly scary, and our teacher had us hide in the closet.”

“I would have been so so scared, and can I just say you are so brave to be standing there with me today, and I so, I am so in awe of you,” Baldwin said, and asked “Can you take me back to yesterday, and tell me what happened?”

“So, I have some sensitive, I have sensitive ears, so they shot out the doors, and I heard the gunshots, and I just kind of froze,” Nate said, “and then the siren came on, and our teacher, and somebody started cracking a joke, and The teacher told them to shut up, and then she had us hide behind her desk.”

“And when the shooter got closer, she moved us into the closet,” he continued. “I was hiding in the corner, and they were right outside the door. I had my hand on a metal baseball bat just in case. Cuz I was going to go down fighting if I was going to go down.”

A visibly shaken Baldwin asked Nate, again, how old he is, and in characteristically 12 year-old fashion, he started to say “Twelve and-a-half,” before settling on “Twelve.”

Later in the interview, Baldwin asked if drills at the school had prepared him for the shooting.

“No, it was really chaotic,” Nate replied, adding “This has never happened to me before, and I was really unsure. We had a drill, like, once or twice this year, but I didn’t know, most of the kids didn’t know what to do.”

Baldwin concluded the interview by telling the boy “I’m going to go ahead and say you are brave, and everyone knows it.”

She then reminded viewers that “this is the 35th school shooting since the fall. This is a crisis.”

Watch the clip above, via CNN.