Nashville mom witnesses students rushing to safety during school shooting; jumps into action help

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (KABC) -- A mother found herself in the middle of chaos during the school shooting in Nashville when children and teachers came running to her home, begging for help.

During an interview with ABC News, Katy Robbins, who lives near The Covenant School where the shooting unfolded, said she was looking outside her window when she saw a group of young children sprinting across the street, eventually huddling with a teacher against the gate that surrounds her housing development.

"The moment I saw the kids huddled along the fence, I thought, 'This must be a school shooting,'" she said. "I was hoping it wasn't. My gut told me it was a shooting."

Rushing outside to help, Robbins said she was struck by the sheer fear in the eyes of the young children as the teacher insisted they needed a "safe place."

Robbins directed the children and the accompanying teacher to the gate entrance, where a neighbor helped rush them to safety.

"This little boy looked up at me, and I will never forget the look in his eyes, he said, 'Help me get inside here! How do I get inside here?'" she recalled. "Because there's a fence at the bottom of the hill and the teacher said, 'How did we get in here?' and I said, 'Go that way! There's a gate, I'm going to open it.'"

After seeing the influx of emergency vehicles, she quickly realized a mass shooting had taken place.

"It looks liked everything you see on TV that you think won't happen in your neighborhood but you know it might because it happens everywhere ... it looked like a school shooting. The teachers weren't saying it in front of the kids," said Robbins.

She recalled seeing a couple of the kids crying.

"My heart almost exploded, you know?" said Robbins. "It breaks my heart. It makes me angry. It makes me think, 'It's our turn now.' It's almost like it's just a matter of time because it's happened everywhere and it keeps happening more and more and more."

After eventually learning that three adults and three children were killed - all of whom were her daughter's age - Robbins said she feels compelled to stand up and push lawmakers to take action.

"I am a mom. I got to go pick up my 9-year-old from school yesterday, and three moms and families did not get to pick up their 9-year-olds yesterday," she said. "Three other families didn't get to see their loved ones again, and we must make change. Our country can't go on like this because no other country has mass shooting sickness. No other country has their number one cause of death in children be gun violence, and this happened in my front yard. My front yard had children running away from a shooter."

Robbins said she has never been an avid follower of gun legislation but after the tragedy unfolded right in front of her eyes, she said she is determined to make a better future for her daughter.

"I believe that we need to have permits for guns," she said. "People have to pass background checks that have loopholes for them to get around passing a background check and take a test to get a license for a gun, just like you would to drive a car. I don't have the solutions because I am not a gun activist. I am a mom who's aware of gun violence, and has always thought there are too many guns and it's too easy to get guns. I know it's a very complicated issue."

Robbins later added, "It makes me feel angry, sad, hopeless, almost that it's so easy to get a gun and that it's so difficult to make change so that it won't be as easy to get a gun to get an assault weapon. It makes me so sad and a little helpless and hopeless but I can't lose hope because then there will be no future for my child."

ABC News contributed to this report.