Mid-Missouri student in Manchester reacts to terror attack

While he wasn’t near the Manchester Arena at the time of Monday night’s terror attack, University of Missouri junior Cole Hoskins said being in the area and seeing the real people affected by the tragedy has been surreal.

“Being right next to one, it’s going to stick with me,” he said. “I never thought I’d be in a position where on Facebook I could check in as safe from a terrorist attack.”

Hoskins said he found out about the attack a few hours after it happened while he was studying on the University of Manchester campus. Although he wasn’t in the area when it happened, he’s been living about three miles from the arena since arriving in Manchester in January.

“The venue is within a quarter of a mile of the movie theater I go to and a mile within where I go out on the weekends,” he said. “It’s just very strange that that could have been easily somewhere I was.”

There has been more police presence on the campus, Hoskins said, and helicopters were circling for the first time since he’s been there.

Hoskins said Tuesday that he’s had trouble focusing on studying for his final exams, considering what happened.

“You’re usually on one side of the planet thinking ‘Oh, that’s tragic and I couldn’t imagine that,'” he said. “Then you’re here where you’re about a mile away from the vigil that was held earlier and you actually see people that are affected. It’s very out of body.”

The city remained on high alert Tuesday after officials raised the threat level, indicating another attack could be likely.

“It’s kind of worrisome. I’m on campus right now at the library and I’m a little bit away from the city but you have the thoughts in the back of your head,” he said. “Am I truly safe and is there anything going on afterwards?”

After his experience, Hoskins said he would return to the United States in the next few weeks with a new perspective on these terror attacks.

“You can’t let this take control of you and you can’t really have such a deep fear because that’s exactly what they want,” he said. “When you give into that, you’re giving into their cause and I think that’s completely wrong and just horrifying.”