JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. -- Several students were with both Matt Thieu and Reagan Weber when the two eighth-grade students were shot Tuesday outside Deer Creek Middle School.

Those with Matt and Reagan describe the especially frightening ordeal outside the school as surreal. Reagan was with a group of girls -- about 10 of them -- walking out of the school. Matt was already outside.

Hailey Gerze hugged Reagan and told her goodbye for the day just seconds before the shooting.

"I can't remember if I had any feelings. I just wanted to get out of there," said Hailey.

Hailey said the group of students she was with noticed the gunman because of his odd appearance. “Someone said, ‘What’s up with the guy in the trench coat?’” said Hailey.

Hailey says the gunman was wearing a black hat with feathers in it, a black bandana around his neck and a trench coat with tan pants.

"He came around the corner with a gun and said, 'Do you F'er's go to this school?' And he shot and we all just kind of ran from there," said Hailey.

“I turned and Reagan was trying to open the door (to get back into the school) because she knew she was shot,” said Hailey.

Hailey says the gunshot was very loud. “All you could hear was ringing in your ears,” said Hailey. “Reagan was holding her arm with the other hand and then she couldn’t really work her arm, so she asked me to open the door. I opened the door and let her in the school and then we just ran... When we got into the school I ran one way and Reagan ran the other.”

Hailey eventually made her way back out through some side doors and ran toward another friend whose mom was waiting in the parking lot.

“We all got into her car and she got us out of there. Some of the students thought that some people were going to die because he wanted to kill. You could totally tell when he came around the corner – just like the sound of so much anger in his voice. You could tell.”

Hailey’s mom, Sherri Gerze, said it was unbelievable to hear her daughter on the phone talking about the shooting. “I don’t think I’ve thought about anything else since that phone call,” said Gerze. “I was like, ‘Did she really just say that? Did that really happen?’”

“You know, Columbine is so close and when that happened I couldn’t really believe it. And then, you’re listening to your daughter on the phone telling you it happened again – I just couldn’t believe it... As a mom you just … you know, her little world as she knows it will always be different," said Sherri.

Hailey said it was so surreal, she honestly thought it was a drill at first. She thought administrators had staged the whole thing to see how students would react.

It wasn't until she saw blood coming from Reagan's forearm that she realized it was a very real attack.