Jake Johnson recalls his mom's 'gut feeling' the day before a shooting at his school

Actor Jake Johnson explained how his mom's "gut feeling" played a role in preventing him from being at his elementary school when a shooter entered the building in 1988.

Johnson — who attended Hubbard Woods School in Winnetka, Illinois, just north of Chicago — recently sat down for an interview on the "Dope as Usual" podcast and said his mom initially barred him from going to his fourth-grade class the same day a woman walked into the school and opened fire.

"I was in fourth grade out of nowhere my mother turns to me and goes, 'You're not going to school tomorrow,'" the "New Girl" alum, now 45, said on the podcast. He explained that he convinced his mom to let him go as he wouldn't physically be in the school at all that day. He would be gone on a field trip to Chicago's Little Vietnam.

He said the day his class went on the field trip (May 20, 1988), a shooter walked into the school through the door where his class was located.

"I used to get in a lot of trouble as a kid and I used to always talk so the teacher pushed me in the far right corner. So I sat away from the other kids and I was right by the door," Johnson said. "A woman walked into the school wearing a robe and nothing underneath. I know me — I would have commented, I would have said something, I would have tried to show off. I would have tried to get laughs. There's no question."

He said that because his class was gone on the field trip, the shooter continued, walking down the hall and opening fire on another class.

The shooter was later identified as Laurie Dann. She killed one 8-year-old at the school, Nicholas Corwin, and wounded five other students.

After fleeing the school, she broke into the nearby home of Ray and Ruth Ann Andrew. She then wounded the couple’s teenage son, Phil Andrew, before she killed herself, NBC Chicago has previously reported.

Johnson said he often wonders about his mom's gut feeling that day and asks her about it.

"To this day, my mom cannot explain why she didn't want me to go to school when I've talked to her," he said. "And I brought it up to her a lot. She goes, 'I don't know, Jake. I just, I had a feeling in my gut. (If my) kid goes to school, you're never gonna see him again.'"

This article was originally published on TODAY.com