Blood Drive Draws Huge Support After Shootings

A local Family Dollar on Lee Highway not far from the scene of the first shooting hosted a blood drive Sunday…and the turnout was much larger than expected.

With four service members killed Thursday and a fifth killed after battling for his life for two days, blood donors are coming from near and far to give.

"There’s somebody that came over an hour away just because they knew this was going on," said Charlie Callari who is vice president of marketing for Blood Assurance. "You see people who’ve never donated before. You see people who have to go to work in the next 30 or 45 minutes but they want to come here and donate right before work."

The amount of blood needed after the shooting in one local hospital shocked officials.

"In a given day, one given day, we sent to Erlanger 130 units of blood," said Callari. "In that first 24 hours we sent them over 700 units of blood and that’s just one hospital."

One of the donors explained why it was an honor to drive an hour to donate to local blood banks following the shooting.

"It was really surreal finding out that there was a terrorist in your own home town," said Brett Thompson who drove from Pikeville, Tenn. to donate. "And so I felt like it was really important to give for the servicemen because they had already sacrificed so much for our country and our county here."

Officials said a typical day brings in around 500 donors system wide.

The past few days following the shooting, 900 donors a day have been giving blood.

"People I think are putting aside all their fears," said Callari.  "They’re putting aside everything in order to help the community."