Photo: Trey Louis | By Mirna Alsharif, NBC News / Yahoo | A Texas school shooting survivor moved “American Idol” judges to tears in an audition that aired Sunday. Trey Louis, “a.k.a Trey from the Fe,” 21, a salesman from Santa Fe, Texas, sang a heartfelt rendition of “Stone” by Whiskey Myers for Katy Perry, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie. They gave him a standing ovation.
“You got the perfect voice,” Bryan told Louis. But it wasn’t Louis’ performance that made the judges emotional.
“In May 2018, a gunman walked into my school,” Louis told the judges when he was asked why he was auditioning. “I was in art room one. He shot up art room two before he made his way to art room one. Lost a lot of friends. Eight students were killed, two teachers were killed, and it’s just really been negative, man. Santa Fe has had a bad rap here since 2018.”
On that day in 2018, a 17-year-old student dressed in a trench coat barged inside a classroom at Santa Fe High School in southeast Texas armed with a shotgun and a revolver and opened fire. Among the 10 people who were killed were an exchange student from Pakistan and a substitute teacher with a “lust for life.”
Thirteen people were injured, officials said.
Richie let out a sigh and appeared to wipe away tears. Perry broke down, sobbing into her hands.
“Our country has … failed us,” she yelled, using expletives. “This is not OK. You should be singing here because you love music, not because you had to go through that. … You didn’t have to lose eight friends. I hope that you remind people that we have to change.”
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There have been 94 mass shootings in the U.S. this year, according to the Gun Violence archive, a nonprofit group that tracks the spread of what has been called an American disease. It defines a mass shooting as a single incident in which at least four people — other than the shooter — are shot.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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Read the whole story here – with tissues in hand:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/katy-perry-tells-school-shooting-194909340.html
Photo: Trey Louis (courtesy of NBC/American Idol/Eric McCandless)
Katy Perry Tells School Shooting Survivor the U.S. Has ‘failed us’ During ‘American Idol’ Audition
