Entertainment

Blake's School Shooting Story On 'The Bachelorette' Brought Him & Becca Even Closer

Paul Hebert/ABC

Three weeks from the end of The Bachelorette and now it's time for the contestants to lay it all out for Becca. While some contestants share stories of divorce and dreaded exes during their hometown date, Blake made an admission to Becca that got very serious, very fast. Blake's school shooting story on The Bachelorette was tragic, but ultimately, it brought him and Becca closer.

During Blake's hometown date, he and Becca visited his old high school, Platte Canyon High School, and he showed Becca around. Becca knew that this high school held significance for him because he learned a little too much about his parent's divorce while he was at school. (Remember, his mom ended up cheating on his dad with a coach there, and Blake was the last to know, as he told her during a date this season.) But this time, Blake had another, more tragic story to tell her.

Blake sat Becca down in the library and explained that he had been present for a school shooting at his high school in 2006. The perpetrator, Blake said, was an outsider — not a student at the school — and when Blake heard his mother, an administrator at the school come on the intercom and say, "Code white, code white," he knew something was seriously wrong.

According to Fox News, a 53-year-old man allegedly entered the high school in the morning of September 27, 2006. He then allegedly took several female students hostage in a classroom and sexually assaulted them. Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener told CNN that police had tried to negotiate with the alleged gunman and remove the hostages, but after talks broke down, "it was then decided that a tactical solution needed to be done in an effort to save the two hostages that were in the room. After a standoff, according to another article by CNN, the local SWAT team stormed the classroom.

When officers entered the room, it appeared that the shooter had shot one of the female hostages and himself after letting the others go free, as per CNN. According to NBC News, that hostage was 16-year-old Emily Keyes, who the gunman allegedly used as a human shield when police burst in the room before turning the gun on himself. Obviously, the event was highly traumatic for Blake, but he marks it as a turning point in his life — after the shooting, he was inspired to live life to the fullest, knowing that every moment is fleeting. Twitter, of course, had a lot of feelings about it.

Plenty Found Blake's Outlook Inspiring

Others Thought It Was A Timely Story

Many Pointed Out The Differences Between Blake & Garrett

Blake lived through a school shooting and Garrett likes posts on Instagram that call the Parkland school shooting kids actors. How is this Men Tell All going to be? While it might be strained, hopefully the network won't shy away from talking about it, given that Blake's story played such a large role in his hometown date and showing Becca various sides of himself.

Blake's hometown date was definitely one of the most affecting scenes in recent Bachelor Nation history. But for everything he's gone through, he seems a happy, well-adjusted, kind man. Perhaps with the right therapist (or whatever he did to get over the trauma), he's found new meaning in his life, and it's great that he has found love in Becca. Will she reciprocate? With only a few weeks left in The Bachelorette, viewers will soon find out. But if she doesn't, doesn't Blake have "Bachelor" written all over him? Either way, I certainly hope that Blake gets his happy ending. He's been through enough, just like so many other Americans unfortunately have been.