BY KATHI STEARNS

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--Father Michael Campbell, chaplain at Grady Hospital who is in residence at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Atlanta, rushed to Grady at 4:15 p.m. July 29 upon hearing of the shootings in Buckhead.

“By the time I got to the hospital everyone was already in the operating room or they were being wheeled in and a team of doctors was converging upon them,” he said. “You could tell it was a situation in which every second counted.”

Seven of the critically injured were sent to Grady.

While he was unable to minister to the victims or their families, Father Campbell said he spent time with the hospital’s support staff who too were overwhelmed by the day’s events.

Father Campbell said that one Catholic police officer described the tragedy as the worst thing he had ever seen. “The officer was really shook up,” Father Campbell said. “When you are there you try to find meaning in the situation. There is so much violence in today’s world. Just this year we’ve had Columbine, Conyers and now this. People start wondering when is it going to stop. It is hard to tell people that you don’t have the answers. The reality is only God has the answers. All we can do is turn it over to him and know that in the long run good will conquer evil.”