Sam Houston Pitcher Rome Shubert Survived School Shooting: ‘God Spared Me’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Sam Houston pitcher Rome Shubert praises God for sparing his life after he was shot during a school shooting in 2018.
On May 18, 2018, Shubert, then a sophomore at Santa Fe High School in Texas, was about to attend his first-period class when he heard gunshots.
Immediately, he began to flip over tables to secure himself and other classmates. When he knew it was safe to escape, he and other students ran out the back and over a wall.
When Shubert made it outside, the adrenaline faded, and he realized he had been shot.
“From my shoulders down to my stomach was red,” Shubert said in an interview with the Houston Chronicle.
Shubert suffered a bullet wound to the back of the head that exited through the side of his neck. It was a miracle none of his major arteries or spinal cord were hit.
“When it was happening I was praying, ‘Please, please, please get me out of this,’” he said. “When I was in the ambulance afterward I was just saying, ‘thank you, thank you, thank you.’”
On that day, Shubert shared a status on his X page: “I’m so grateful and blessed that god spared me life today. Today I was shot in the back of the head but i am completely okay and stable.”
Following the shooting, Shubert told CBS News, “I’m just thinking that I’m one of the lucky ones, and I’m glad that God spared me. But I just feel bad that they didn’t make it. They had no reason to be shot or anything. They didn’t deserve that.”
Since that day six years ago, Shubert has had to do much physical healing but even more healing emotionally.
“It’s tough, but you’ve got to stay the course,” he explained. “You have to find people who you can lean on at any given moment because if you try to handle it all by yourself, you’re going to fail miserably.
“I tried to do it by myself for a little bit and just silence it and put it away, but you’ve got to talk about it and you’ve got to keep pushing forward,” Shubert continued. “If you get stuck in that moment, it’s all going to come crashing down on you so fast and so hard that you’re not going to be able to deal with it.”
As a pitcher for the Sam Houston baseball team, Shubert still honors those who died in the tragedy.
“Before each outing, he always remembers to look down at his ‘Santa Fe Strong’ tattoo and remember those who lost their lives. As the years have gone on, May 18 is still a very difficult, emotional day for Shubert, his family and the Santa Fe community,” Sports Spectrum wrote.
“Shubert transferred to Sam Houston State prior to the 2023 season, pursuing a degree in construction management and recording a 2-2 record in two seasons across 37 appearances as a reliever,” the outlet added.
For more inspiring sports stories, check out Sports Spectrum.
