Thread: Gunshots have been fired at an elementary school in Decatur, Georgia

Gunshots have been fired at an elementary school in Decatur, Georgia, near Atlanta, CNN affiliate WSB reports.

Report: Gunshots fired at Georgia school

By CNN Staff
updated 1:33 PM EDT, Tue August 20, 2013

(CNN) -- Gunshots were reported fired at a charter elementary school Tuesday in Decatur, Georgia, a school board chairman told CNN affiliate WSB.

No reports of injuries have been made from the Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy, board Chairman Melvin Johnson told WSB.

Aerial video from WSB Tuesday afternoon showed children leaving the building and being guided to a corner of a field.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/20/us/georgia-school-gunshots/

Students at Georgia elementary school where gunfire was reported are safe; suspect is in custody, school spokesman says.

Gunman at Georgia school was armed with an AK-47 and other weapons, police say. He fired about six shots; no one was hurt.




Police: Suspect fired AK-47 inside Georgia school

By CNN Staff
updated 5:04 PM EDT, Tue August 20, 2013




Police: Person who fired shot in custody


STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• No one was hurt at the school outside Atlanta, police say
• A suspect was in custody Tuesday afternoon
• Parents cheered as the students were released

(CNN) -- [Breaking news update posted at 4:59 p.m. Tuesday]
A shooter fired about six shots from inside a Georgia elementary school on Tuesday, aiming at police officers outside as they approached, DeKalb County Police Chief William O'Brien said. The suspect is approximately 19 years old and has been detained. It is unclear whether he had any connection with the school.
[Breaking news update posted at 4:55 p.m. Tuesday]
The suspect in a Georgia school shooting barricaded himself in the school's front office with employees before eventually surrendering to police, O'Brien said.
[Breaking news update posted at 4:53 p.m. Tuesday]
A gunman at a Georgia elementary school Tuesday was armed with an AK-47 "and a number of other weapons," police said. "He started to fire from inside the school at our officers," O'Brien said. No one was injured in the shooting, O'Brien said.
[Original story, posted at 4:21 p.m. Tuesday]
All students OK after shot fired at Georgia school

(CNN) -- At least one gunshot was reported fired at a charter elementary school in suburban Atlanta Tuesday, but no students were injured, a school spokesman said.

Students were being returned to their parents at a nearby shopping center Tuesday afternoon. The children smiled and waved and parents cheered as each buses arrived with students aboard.

"Everybody's safe," DeKalb County Schools Superintendent Michael Thurmond said.

One person who fired a shot at or near Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy is in custody, said Quinn Hudson, a spokesman for the DeKalb County School District.

"This thing came out for the best," said Dale Holmes, DeKalb County's assistant police chief. "Thank God no one was hurt -- not even the suspect."

Holmes said it wasn't clear whether the shot was fired inside or outside the school, located about seven miles east of downtown Atlanta.

Teachers and administrators guided the students out to a lawn outside the school's gym, where they remained while investigators combed the school to make sure no other threat remained. Yellow crime scene tape marked part of a parking lot and a wall of the school.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/20/us/georgia-school-gunshots/index.html

The suspect, identified later as 20-year-old Michael Brandon, . . .

Elementary School Clerk Says She Convinced Suspect to Put His Weapons Down and Surrender: Exclusive

Aug. 20, 2013
By RUSSELL GOLDMAN and ALYSSA NEWCOMB Alyssa Newcomb More from Alyssa »
Digital Reporter









Michael Brandon Hill, seen here in this March, 2013 mugshot provided by the Henry County Sheriff's Office, was arrested after allegedly carrying an AK-47 and firing it in a Deaklb County, Georgia Elementary school (right) on August 20, 2013.
Courtesy Henry County Sheriff's Office | WSBTV/ABC News

Next Video Eyewitness Account of the Georgia Shooting



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As a gunman terrorized an Atlanta-area elementary school today, a school clerk said she was the one who convinced him to empty his pockets and backpack of ammunition and to get down on the floor so police could apprehend him.

In an exclusive interview on "World News with Diane Sawyer," Antoinette Tuff described how she watched the suspect -- Michael Brandon Hill, 20, from the Atlanta area, officials and sources said -- load up with ammunition in front of her and several other employees who were being held hostage.
"[I saw] a young man ready to kill anybody that he could and take any lives he wanted to," Tuff said.
The lone suspect entered Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy in Decatur, Ga., this afternoon carrying an AK-47 assault rifle and other weapons, said Chief Cedric Alexander of the Dekalb Police.
Police identified the suspect as Michael Brandon Hill, 20, and said he will face charges including aggravated assault on a police officer, terroristic threats and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
"Detectives continue to interview the suspect at police headquarters," a police statement noted.
Sources told ABC News Hill recently was arrested for alleged terroristic threats and acts.
A man with the same name and age was arrested five months ago in McDonough, Ga., according to online records and court records. He entered a negotiated plea on July 16 and was sentenced to three years' probation and anger management.
During today's standoff, Tuff said the suspected gunman "went outside several times and shot at police officers."
He also ordered staffers to call a local television channel, ABC affiliate WSB-TV, to request that a camera crew record him "killing police," WSB reported.
"He told me he was sorry for what he was doing. He was willing to die," Tuff said.
The school clerk said she tried to keep the assailant calm by asking him his name but, she said, at first he wouldn't tell it to her.
Then, he began listening to her tell her life story. She said she told him about how her marriage fell apart after 33 years and the "roller coaster" of opening her own business.
"I told him, 'OK, we all have situations in our lives. I went through a tragedy myself,'" she said. "It was going to be OK. If I could recover, he could too."
Then Tuff made the request that she said helped end the standoff. She said she asked the suspect to put his weapons down, empty his pockets and backpack and lay on the floor.
"I told the police he was giving himself up. I just talked him through it," she said.
Police, including U.S. marshals, entered the school and found the gunman in the office. He exchanged fire with the officers but ultimately surrendered, Alexander told reporters.
No students were harmed and the suspect was taken into custody.
"Once we had him in custody, we secured the entire school," Alexander said.
SWAT teams were sent classroom to classroom to evacuate students, some as young as pre-kindergarten.
Authorities have yet to establish a motive or determine whether the shooter had a link to the school.
Police planned to evacuate the children through the front of the school, but the risk of a bomb in the suspect's car led them to find an alternative route. Instead, police cut a large hole in a stretch of fence behind the school and led children down an embankment. There they were placed on school buses, accounted for, and later reunited with their families at a nearby Walmart.
"It's a blessed day: All of our children are safe," said Michael L. Thurmond, interim superintendent of the Dekalb County School District.
Police continued to investigate the car the gunman drove to the school after bomb-sniffing dogs detected explosives. Police later blew up the car's trunk and towed away the car, but found no explosives, a police official said.
Authorities believe the man may have entered the school by closely following a person authorized to enter the building, however once inside, he only went as far as the front office.
The shooting came on just the second week of classes at the charter school.
School safety and gun control were again thrust into the national spotlight last year when Adam Lanza, 20, killed 20 students and six adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/elementary-school-clerk-convinced-suspect-put-weapons-surrender/story?id=20014879&singlePage=true

Authorities: Georgia shooting suspect had nearly 500 rounds of ammunition

Investigators spent the night trying to pin down a motive for 20-year-old Michael Brandon, who surrendered after opening fire inside an elementary school near Atlanta. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.

By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News

The suspect in a Georgia elementary school shooting who fired six rounds in a front office before surrendering to police had nearly 500 rounds of ammunition with him, authorities said Wednesday.

Michael Brandon Hill, 20, walked into Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy in Decatur, Ga., outside Atlanta with an AK-47 type assault rifle, 498 rounds of ammunition and a couple of magazines on Tuesday, DeKalb County officials announced at a press conference on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, DeKalb County lead investigator Ray Davis and police chief Cedric Alexander outlined what could have been a massacre for the school, but ended with nobody hurt. The suspect surrendered peacefully to police after exchanging gunfire with them.

"He walked in with 498 rounds of ammunition. Fortunately this came to an end quietly, without incident," Alexander said. "I think we can all make a reasonable assumption he came here to do some harm."

Also Wednesday, the brother of Michael Brandon Hill, said Hill previously threatened to shoot him and that he suffers from mental disorders.

Timothy Hill told NBC News his brother "was bipolar and suffered from ADD," and that the two have not spoken recently.

Hill waived his first appearance in DeKalb Magistrate Court Wednesday afternoon.

Hill is charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, making terroristic threats and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was questioned for hours by police, but police have no clear idea of what may be a motive or whether Hill has ties to the school.

A sheriff's official in Henry County, Ga., south of Atlanta, said Hill was also charged there in March with making terroristic threats — a felony in Georgia. The indictment is for an incident between Dec. 30 and 31 of 2012 to "unlawfully threaten to commit the crime of murder, a crime of violence, for the purpose of terrorizing another."

Timothy Hill told NBC News the charge stemmed from Hill threatening to shoot him. Michael Hill was issued a no-contact order afterwards, Timothy Hill said.
Court records show that Hill pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years' probation and anger counseling.

Buses transported elementary school students from their school to nearby McNair High School on Wednesday to resume classes, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, a day after a potential massacre was averted.

Students were greeted by counselors and a sign that read, "Welcome McNair Elementary School. Our prayers our with you," WSB in Atlanta reported.

AP Photo / David Goldman
A sign welcomes Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy students as they return to classes at McNair High School on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2013 after a man with an assault rifle and other weapons entered the academy yesterday and shot at police from inside.

Officials believe the gunman walked into the front office of the school Tuesday afternoon at about 1 p.m. ET with an AK-47 and at least one other weapon, despite the school security system that requires visitors to be buzzed in. He may have followed behind someone who was authorized to be in the building, but never got past the front office.

Once he was inside, the gunman told a clerk to call Atlanta TV station WSB. The clerk told a WSB assignment editor, Lacey LeCroy, that the gunman wanted the station to "start filming as police die."

"All the time of doing this, I never experienced anything like this," LeCroy said. "It didn't take long to know that this was serious."

Inside the front office, he held one or two employees captive for a period of time. School bookkeeper Antoinette Tuff said she was one of the hostages.

In an interview with ABC News, Tuff said she tried to convince the gunman to put down his guns. She said the gunman told her he had no reason to live because nobody loved him.

"And I just explained to him that I loved him," Tuff told ABC News. "I didn't know much about him. I didn't know his name but I did love him and it was scary because I knew at that moment he was ready to take my life along with his, and if I didn't say the right thing, then we all would be dead."

Tuff also said the suspect told her he hadn't taken his medication.

In an effort to calm him down, she told him about her own troubles: how her marriage fell apart and about her struggles with opening her own business.

"I told him, 'OK, we all have situations in our lives," she said. "It was going to be OK. If I could recover, he could, too."

During the standoff, Tuff told ABC News the gunman "went outside several times and shot at police officers." He had a bag "full of ammunitions," she said, but after they had talked, she asked him to put his guns down and empty his backpack.

DeKalb County Police Chief Cedric Alexander said the suspect fired about six rounds while officers from at least a half-dozen law enforcement agencies that raced from the school returned fire.

Ultimately, Hill surrendered without incident.

Tuff, who said prayer helped her get through the ordeal, is expected to be at work on Wednesday.

"Yes, I will be back," she told ABC News," sitting in that same seat, blessing that next person."

The frightening ordeal brought back memories of Sandy Hook in Newtown, Conn., last December's elementary school shooting tragedy that left 26 people dead — 20 of them children.

"My husband called and said there's a gunman at the school," said Linda Bell, the mother of a McNair School pupil who was one of hundreds of frantic parents who dashed to pick up her child from a Wal-Mart parking lot where the kids had been bused to after the incident. "I'm like, what?!"

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/21/20118311-authorities-georgia-shooting-suspect-had-nearly-500-rounds-of-ammunition?lite