No Injuries In McNair Elementary School Shooting

Aug. 20, 2013


DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. —

Channel 2 Action News has confirmed that one person is in custody after shots were fired at a DeKalb County elementary school.

The DeKalb County school board chairman said there was an active shooter at Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy. Channel 2 Action News has confirmed with multiple sources that the suspect is a white man in his 20s who was armed with an AK-47 and dressed in black. Channel 2's Mark Winne said the suspect was peacefully apprehended by DeKalb County sheriff's deputies and U.S. Marshals.

“The call went out. DeKalb police and DeKalb marshals were clearing the building. DeKalb sheriff’s deputies and the U.S. marshal’s service had also responded. They joined in and they happened to locate the suspect in the building – without incident, without resistance,” said Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne.

Chairman Melvin Johnson said there have been reports of shots fired. There are no injuries.

News Chopper 2 footage showed children running from the school building.

The school is located on 2nd Avenue in Decatur.

Parents are being asked to go to the Walmart near Gresham Road and Interstate 20 to get their children. Hundreds of McNair elementary school parents flooded the parking lot to be reunited with their children, who are being bused from the school. Parents must have photo ID.

A woman in the school office called Channel 2 Action News to report that there was a shooter in the school. She told a Channel 2 assignment desk editor that the gunman asked her to call WSB-TV and police. Shots could be heard over the call.

Channel 2 Action News has 16 crews covering all angles of the shooting. Reporter Dave Huddleston spoke to parents gathered at Walmart about how they heard about the shooting.

Parents at Walmart spoke to Channel 2's Lori Geary about their fears for their childrens' safety.

“My daughter called me on the telephone while I was at home and she said ‘Mom, are you listening to the news? There’s something going on at Nadia’s school. And so, she was on her way to Walmart and I came behind her,” Anna, the grandmother told Geary.

Nadia’s mother, Kimberly, said she now fears sending her little girl to school.

“It makes me want to home school my daughter,” Kimberly said.

“I understand that my child is safe right now. But the fact that somebody can come into the school and have a weapon and me not be able to get to her, and hold her, and comfort her, because I don’t know what’s going on with her,” Kimberly said. “So, it kind of makes me just keep my daughter at home and home school her.”

Channel 2’s Erica Byfield spoke to woman who lives down the street from the school.

The neighbor, who did not want to give her name, said she was in her kitchen when her dog started barking frantically. After hearing about five shots, she was compelled to run outside and check her surroundings, knowing a school was nearby.

“At first, I heard some little small shots. Then, I heard ‘bang, bang, bang!’ Then, I heard, ‘doom, doom, doom shots, so I knew something was wrong,” she told Byfield.

The neighbor said she hopes the gunman pays for what he’s done.

“I hope they get him and prosecute him for what he’s done, because these are innocent kids,” she said.

Students will have school on Wednesday, but classes will be held at McNair High School. The students will maintain the same bus schedule.

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August 20, 2013

On the day of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., I sat in my car and cried as I listened to the first reports come in over the radio. Online, almost immediately, it seemed, there were pictures of students, babies, really, clinging to each other as police officers in full SWAT gear led them through the parking lot. The news didn't get any better as hours and days passed and months later, as students across the country head back to school, we still don't have many answers to what caused that terrible tragedy and what we can do to prevent another one.

That became clear again today when reports began appearing in the early afternoon of a shooting at an elementary school in Georgia. Not again. Not again. Not again. Please, not again. There were images of dozens of police cars lining the streets around the school, which is in DeKalb County, Ga. There were images of students being herded to a yard outside of the building. There were images of parents gathering as close as they could to the building, holding each other and crying.

Then, after many tense moments, some relief. The suspect was in custody and each and every child at McNair Discovery Learning Academy is accounted for. Even as I write this, they're waiting for buses to arrive to take them from the back of the school, where they're waiting, to a nearby WalMart, where hundreds of parents have descended to meet their students and take them home. Just moments ago, several news outlets began reporting that the suspect in custody was a man armed with an AK-47 assault rifle.

This could have ended so much worse than it did. It will be interesting to learn, in the coming hours and days, what school officials and teachers did to ensure the safety of all, especially given that school just started last week, so they probably haven't conducted any drills yet. Hopefully, they all did exactly what they were supposed to do, and perhaps their system can serve as a model to others. But there will also be questions that need answering. Did this man own this rifle legally? How did he make it into the building in the first place? What were his intentions and did he express those intentions to anyone who may have failed to act to prevent this?

And, there will be the emotional and psychological fallout experienced by school employees and students. How will they move forward with the new year and how will they help these children feel that school is a safe place?

This is the last thing I want to write about the day before the first day of school for thousands of students across York County.

But, unfortunately, it should be at the front of our minds as we move forward into another year, where people manage to get into schools and fire assault rifles, where teenagers kill a passing jogger "just because we felt like it" and where we are no closer to solving this country's gun problem than we were back in December after Newtown. Or last July after the movie theater shooting in Colorado. Or after anyone of the 34 mass shootings that have occurred in this country in the last 10 years alone, killing a combined 284 people. This is, of course, not to mention the more than 21,000 people that have died because of guns since Newtown who weren't part of a mass shooting event. (Source: CDC)

I'll finish here with something a friend said following Newtown. I'm sure many parents in Georgia and all over the country will be doing this tonight as they think about what might have happened if things didn't go differently in one elementary school today..."Hug those sweet little children and hold them tight."

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August 21, 2013

A 20-year-old man is facing criminal charges after allegedly firing shots from an assault rifle Tuesday at an Atlanta-area elementary school.

No one was injured in the shooting and all students and teachers were accounted for and safe. The suspect, later identified as Michael Brandon Hill, fired at least a half-dozen shots with an assault rifle from inside the school and officers returned fire, DeKalb County Police Chief Cedric L. Alexander said at a news conference.

The suspect told a person inside the school that he didn’t want to hurt anyone, but he wanted to talk to police.

Hill is charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, terroristic threats and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

The 800 or so students in pre-kindergarten to fifth grade were evacuated from Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy in Decatur, a few miles east of Atlanta. 

They sat outside in a field for a time until school buses came to take them to their waiting parents and other relatives at a nearby Wal-Mart. When the first bus arrived a couple hours later, cheers erupted in the store parking lot.

DeKalb County Schools Superintendent Michael Thurmond praised faculty and authorities who got the young students to safety, staying calm and following safety plans in place.

"It's a blessed day, all of our children are safe," Thurmond said at the news conference. "This was a highly professional response on the ground by DeKalb County employees assisted by law enforcement."

Though the school has a system where visitors must be buzzed in by staff, the gunman may have slipped inside behind someone authorized to be there, Alexander said. The suspect, who had no clear ties to the school, never got past the front office, where he held one or two employees captive for a time, the chief said. Hill, who had address listed about three miles from the school, is charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, terroristic threats and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. There was no information on a possible court date.

A woman in the office called WSB-TV to say the gunman asked her to contact the Atlanta station and police. WSB said during the call, shots were heard in the background. Assignment editor Lacey Lecroy said she spoke with the woman who said she was alone with the man and his gun was visible.

"It didn't take long to know that this woman was serious," Lecroy said. "Shots were one of the last things I heard. I was so worried for her."

School clerk Antoinette Tuff in an interview on ABC's "World News with Diane Sawyer" said she worked to convince the gunman to put down his weapons and ammunition.

"He told me he was sorry for what he was doing. He was willing to die," Tuff told ABC.
She told him her life story, 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," she said. "It was going to be OK. If I could recover, he could, too."

Then Tuff said she asked the suspect to put his weapons down, empty his pockets and backpack on the floor.

"I told the police he was giving himself up. I just talked him through it," she said.

A woman answering the phone at a number listed for Hill in court records said she was his mother but said it wasn't a good time and rushed off the phone.

Complicating the rescue, bomb-sniffing dogs alerted officers to something in Hill's trunk and investigators believe he may have been carrying explosives, Alexander said. Officials cut a hole in a fence to make sure students running from the building could get even farther away to a nearby street, he said.

Police had strung yellow tape up blocking intersections near the school while children waited to be taken to Wal-Mart where hundreds of people were waiting. The crowd waved from behind yellow police tape as buses packed with children started arriving along the road in front of them at the store. The smiling children waved back.

Regional superintendent Rachel Zeigler used a megaphone to say children were on the buses by grade level and that each bus would also be carrying an administrator, a teacher and a Georgia Bureau of Investigation officer. Relatives had to show ID, sign each child out and have their photo taken.

The school has about 870 children enrolled. The academy is named after McNair, an astronaut who died when the space shuttle Challenger exploded on Jan. 28, 1986, according to the school's website.

Jonessia White, the mother of a kindergartner, said the school's doors are normally locked.
"I took (my son) to school this morning and had to be buzzed in," she said. "So I'm wondering how the guy got in the door."

Jackie Zamora, 61, of Decatur, was at the Wal-Mart waiting and said her 6-year-old grandson was inside the school when the shooting was reported and she panicked for more than an hour because she hadn't heard whether or not anyone had been injured.

She said the school has a set of double doors where visitors must be buzzed in and show identification to a camera to be allowed in.

"I don't know how this could happen at this school," Zamora said. "There's so much security."
School volunteer Debra Haynes said she encountered the suspect without knowing it.

She stopped by the office at the end of her shift and saw a man talking to a secretary but she did not see a gun.

"I heard him say, `I'm not here to harm any staff or any parents or students. He said he wanted to speak to a police officer."

"By the time I got to 2nd Avenue, I heard gunshots," she said.

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A man arrested at a school in the US state of Georgia on Tuesday was carrying 500 rounds of ammunition and an assault-style weapon, police say.

Michael Brandon Hill, 20, allegedly held two captive in the front office of the Atlanta-area academy, shooting at police outside, officials said.

One of the hostages, school bookkeeper Antoinette Tuff, told local media she had talked him into surrendering.

Mr Hill was arrested on multiple charges, including aggravated assault.

No-one was injured in the event at McNair Discovery Learning Academy.

Twenty-six people, including 20 children were killed in Newtown, Connecticut last December when a gunman opened fire inside a primary school.


DeKalb County Police Chief Cedric Alexander said officials were unsure of Mr Hill's motive; the suspect had no clear ties to the school.

Detective Ray Davis says the suspect got the AK-47-style rifle from an acquaintance, but it was unclear if he stole or borrowed it.
Officials believe Mr Hill entered the school by walking in behind someone allowed in.

Ms Tuff told broadcaster ABC the suspect had told her "he was sorry for what he was doing. He was willing to die".
She kept Mr Hill talking by sharing her life story, including a marriage ended after 33 years and the difficulty of 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."

"I knew that if he got out that door he was gonna kill everybody," she told a local broadcaster in a separate interview.
McNair Discovery Learning Academy has about 870 children enrolled across six levels.

The school is named after Ronald McNair, an astronaut who died when the space shuttle Challenger exploded on 28 January 1986, according to the school's website.

Aerial television footage showed young students running out of the school building on Tuesday, with police and teachers escorting them to safety.

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February 13, 2014



ATLANTA — Antoinette Tuff was just a child when she confronted death. It came in the shape of a rattlesnake, crawling along a hot patch of South Carolina dirt. What happened next in her grandmother's garden would prepare Tuff for another encounter, years later, when death reared its head in a metro Atlanta elementary school.

“No, baby, don't run away,” her grandmother said. “You don't let that snake scare you.”

Grandma stamped the ground. The snake got the message.

So did young Antoinette. You cannot let fear be your master.

That lesson came back to Tuff on Aug. 20 when a man dressed in black, carrying a semi-automatic rifle, entered the office of Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Center in DeKalb County. Officials identified him as Michael Brandon Hill, 20, of Decatur. They'd later characterize him as “a young man with a long history of mental health issues.”

What happened next is the stuff of headlines, and the answer to every parent's prayer. In contrast to the shootings of innocents at Columbine, Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook, no one was killed at McNair. All the students, faculty — yes, even the gunman — came away alive. Tuff is the reason.

That tense encounter forms the nucleus of “Prepared for a Purpose,” Tuff's account of how she dealt with a suicidal gunman. The 151-page volume, which touches on other events in Tuff's life, places the reader in a school office where a bookkeeper unschooled in the art of negotiations averted a tragedy.

Is she a heroine? Tuff, 47, preparing for a live television interview, shrugged. She's fielded that question before.

“I think God prepared me for all this,” said Tuff, who has taken advantage of her celebrity to found Kids on the Move for Success. The nonprofit organization provides underprivileged children with educational opportunities.

It's an issue that strikes home. As she recounts in her book, Tuff grew up hard, grew up hurting. Her father abandoned Tuff's mother and other children when she was 2. Only years later would she reconnect with her dad. Even then, it was a rocky reintroduction.

She and her mom became homeless. When she was 13, she met the guy she thought would be her mate forever. She dropped out of high school. They had a daughter, married, then had a son. The son was born with an array of disabilities and is in a wheelchair.

And, through all this, said Tuff, she kept her faith, a belief that the Almighty would help her through life's cruelties. And life served a big helping of cruelty. As she recounts in her book, she learned that her fiancé — later her husband — was engaged to another woman.

“That was a sign, wasn't it?” asked Tuff, who sighed. “I got lots of signs.”

Later, her husband left her on her own. And nowhere was she more on her own than Aug. 20. In a series of recollections sprinkled throughout the book, Tuff details the uncertain moments when mayhem hovered in the air.

It began when the gunman came into the office.

“This is not a joke!” Tuff writes, quoting the gunman. “I need you to understand this is not a joke. I am here. This is real.

“We are all going to die today,” he told her.

“He was pacing fast, like he couldn't control his energy, like he wanted to scream and bust out of his skin,” Tuff writes. “Instead, he raised his rifle to eye level and made a move for the side door.

“The side door,” she continues, “is the door that leads to the classrooms where the kids are.”

He never reached the classrooms. Instead, he stayed with Tuff, who carefully brought a young man back from the brink, even after he wounded himself with the rifle.

At the end, with police ringing the school, Tuff writes that the gunman was ready to surrender. “You can tell them (police) to come in now,” he said. “I need to go to the hospital.”

That's a memory that won't fade. “I didn't think God was going to put an AK-47 in my face that day,” Tuff said.

In her book's introduction, Tuff recalls that the day began with prayer. “The Lord is my shepherd,” she prayed, reciting the 23rd Psalm, one of the Bible's most revered passages.

And, a few lines later, she prayed: “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.”

The shadow of death. It passed by a little girl in a South Carolina vegetable patch, only to return, years later. By then, the girl was grown and prepared.

For that we can all say a prayer of thanks.


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December 17th, 2013



DECATUR, Ga. -- Public defender attorneys for Michael Brandon Hill, the man suspected of walking into McNair Discovery Learning Academy and firing shots earlier this year, have entered a plea of mental incompetence, saying Hill is not competent to stand trial.

Hill is accused of walking into the elementary school with a gun and more than 500 rounds of ammunition. Police said that once barricaded in the school, Hill fired some shots before surrendering to police.

No students were hurt in the August 20 incident.

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No word if or when a Judge has ordered a competency evaluation or the setting of a trial date.

This seems to be happening a lot lately. All the sudden, few are 'competent to stand trial'.