Alek Skarlatos Leaves ‘DWTS’ Rehearsal After Oregon College Shooting But Expected Back Monday

Expect increased ratings for Dancing With The Stars this coming Monday. A source says competitor Alek Skarlatos is planning to return to the series in time for Monday’s broadcast, despite his abrupt departure from rehearsal Thursday after learning of the mass shooting at the community college where he’d been enrolled this semester.

DWTS declined to comment and is being low-key about the situation with regard to Skarlatos. The Army National Guard Specialist was recruited to compete on this edition of the reality series after he and pals subdued a man who had opened fire on a train heading to Paris. Skarlatos, who is assigned to an infantry unit in Roseburg, OR, had been enrolled at Umpqua Community College before the Dancing bug bit him. He learned about yesterday’s shooting via text while rehearsing with his DWTS partner, Lindsay Arnold, and says he hid in the bathroom so the DWTS cameras could not see him as he reacted to the news.

He did, however, appear in front of cameras on ABC’s Good Morning America today from Roseburg, where he took the cringe-inducing hypothetical question as to whether he would have taken down the gunman had he been in the classroom rather than rehearsing for the ABC primetime dance competition. Local authorities say there are 10 fatalities in the school shooting, including the gunman, and seven people are being treated for injuries.