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THE BATTALION Page 13
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1980
atterson recuperating from shooting
By NANCY ANDERSEN
City StafT
k^efore he left St. Joseph Hospital
ter surgery to remove a .38-caliber
J l(lMillet lodged in his head in Decein-
oi) 5* sophomore Ed Patterson told
loaches he would be back and
oiling football at Texas A&M Uni-
OQiv ■ jfsity.
ire lliltterson. 19, is back, but he
gavt tn t be able to play football for at
eir | : * six months. That’s how long the
|enr offensive guard said it will
oyo ike lor the bones in his nose to set,
iiivp Jthe scar tissue to heal around the
t try tilli t fragment remaining in his
vouIiIb®.
lime, le injuries are the result of what
Jec fttol out to be a good time at a local
acalile hall, but ended in tragedy
lesi lien Patterson said “a crazy idiot”
ivodiJM never seen before shot him.
p the time of the incident last
5, Brazos County Sheriff Bob
by Yeager said he thought Patterson
was shot at a fairly close range with a
.38-caliber pistol, but the details
were sketchy.
Deputy Sheriff Dick Gullegde
said Thursday, “At the time, we
didn’t know if a fight was involved or
words were exchanged. But we
found out there was no fight, no
scuffle. ”
Patterson’s friend and teammate
Bryan Dausin was with Patterson
when the shooting happened and
told it this way:
“We were leaving the dance hall,
and Ed was going to give a girl a ride
home. I pulled up by the girl’s car,
and he got out to talk to her. Some
guys — I couldn’t hear because the
radio was on — came up. I was wait
ing to see what Ed was going to do,
and this guy just walked up and shot
him. ”
Dausin said he “freaked out,” but
he thought it was only a pop gun
because Patterson didn’t fall down.
“I jumped out of my truck,” Dausin
said, “wondering what the crazy guy
was doing to Ed. He had the gun
pointed at me at about arms length,
and I told him to give it to me. Then I
grabbed it out of his hand and knock
ed it away.”
It wasn’t until he grabbed the gun
and looked at Patterson that Dausin
said he realized it was a real gun.
What Dausin saw was the work of
a bullet which he said entered at an
angle through the left side of Patter
son’s nose, traveled through his right
eye and lodged in his head.
Patterson said, “I didn’t realize I
had been shot, I thought someone
had hit me. I couldn’t see out of my
right eye. I walked to my friend’s
truck (Dausin’s), and he drove me to
the quack shack — the only place
Bryan knew for sure was open. I
ickey runs unofficial record in dash
United Press International
GLEWOOD, Calif. — Ron
s shattered the American in-
triple-jump record, Craig Mas-
upset Dr. Thomas Wessing-
in the mile and Curtis Dickey
the open and special 60-yard
is to highlight the Los Angeles
s Indoor Games,
ers jumped 55 feet 9 1/4 inches
|s final try to break the previous
of 55-5 1/2 set by Tommy
esof the U.S. Army in 1976.
shack produced the biggest up-
of Friday night’s meet, outkick-
Wessinghage of West Germany
final 100 yards of the mile to
y 10 yards in a time of 4:10.63.
jinghage finished second in
(3 and Todd Harbour of Baylor
with a 4:06.47.
ickey, star running back for
A&M University’s football
was clocked in a world indoor
6.0 in the open 60-yard
dash but the time will not be recog
nized as a record beause it was
timed by hand.
Dickey came back less than 20
minutes later to outsprint Darrin
Nelson of Stanford by two yards to
win the special 60-yard dash in 6.25.
About 15 members of the Muham
mad Ali Track Club, including
world-class sprinter Houston
McTear and hurdler Greg Foster,
picketed outside the Forum to pro
test the appearance of seven Russian
athletes.
There was a faint booing for the
first Russian competitor because of
the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afgha
nistan, but the Russians were not
booed afterward.
All are Cordially Invited
to hear
Ex-Marine David Rennie, C.S.B.
speak on
“Christian Science: The Worth of Man”
Feb. 7, 1980
7:30-8:30
Rudder Tower
Room 308
Enjoy meeting
interesting people?
Join MSC Cepheid Variable
Wed., Feb. 6, 8 p.m.
308 Rudder Tower
OIL • CLASS COUNCILS OF ’80, ’81, ’82, ’83. .•
DON’T TELL
OUR ROOMMATE!
I TELL THE STUDENTS WHO
REPRESENT YOU WHAT YOU LIKE
AND DISLIKE AT A&M
Look for their name-tags on
campus this week
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walked in the emergency room and
just remember getting in the ambu
lance.”
When Patterson woke up at St.
Joseph he was in stable condition,
but doctors said his right eye would
have to be removed.
The operation was performed by
two surgeons in Corpus Christi, near
his hometown of Portland, Patterson
said. It consisted of rebuilding the
bone structure of his nose and re
moving the eyeball and bullet frag
ments. He said he spent three and a
half weeks on his back in hospitals
which gave him a lot of time to think.
“I was mad,” he said, “and the
longer I was in the hospital, the mad
der I got.”
The day after it happened, friends
said he was making jokes about his
condition which Patterson said,
“sure beat the hell out of crying ab
out it. It’s happened; now I’ve got to
take it and go with it.”
Going with it meant learning to
make adjustments, especially get
ting used to seeing with one eye, he
said. His depth perception needs
practice, comparing sizes of objects
at a distance is difficult and his
peripheral vision is not what it was,
he said, but he can drive a car.
Also, he can no longer smell
which, he said, takes a lot of the fun
out of eating. But he seems to have
accepted the changes calmly.
“Taking it in stride is the only way
it’s ever crossed my mind to handle
it,” he said.
Patterson said he is taking 16
hours this semester, and he had to
reschedule and study for four finals
from last semester. He said he’s even
worked out one, but he got a
headache and was told not to work
out until he gets a release from his
doctor.
“I feel like I can work out, it’s just
red tape,” he said.
However, Pat Gerbach, coach
Tom Wilson’s secretary, said the -
University would be liable if any
thing happened to him now.
“He’s a well-adjusted young
man,” she said, “and we knew he’d
be back.”
As to playing football, Patterson
said it’s up in the air now because he
can’t have any rough physical contact
for six months.
“Then I will play if I can, ” he said,
“if not then I can’t — it’s kind of cut
and dried.”
Patterson’s attitude about his fu
ture is also cut and dried.
“If something comes along you
just got to try and if you can’t, you
can’t.”
Even if he never plays Aggie foot
ball again, Patterson’s education will
be paid for by Texas A&M. If he
plays he will remain on athletic shco-
larship, and if he doesn’t he will be
on a medical scholarship, which
allows an injured athlete to finish his
education.
Gerbach said Patterson’s football
future depends on his surgeon.
“Right now he (Patterson) only has
a covering over the eye socket and
will have to have an artificial eye put
in,” she said.
A grand jury has indicted William
Jennings Brannan Jr., of 1501 North
Sims in Bryan, on a charge of
attempted murder Jan. 17 in connec
tion with the incident.
Brannan, 21, was originally
charged with aggravated assaulted
and posted bail of $1,000 last Dec. 6.
Brazos County Assistant District
Attorney Jim James said Brannan
probably will be arraigned at his
docket call Feb. 20. A docket call
gives the defendent a chance to de
cide if he wants a jury trial or one
before a court and other related mat
ters.
The docket call was set for Feb. 6,
hut it was reset due to a conflict with
Brannan’s attorney.
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