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When an armed gunman entered an elementary school in Decatur, Ga., yesterday, the school's bookkeeper, Antoinette Tuff, was able to talk him into putting down his weapon and giving himself up to the police, AP reports.
Miraculously, no one was injured and Tuff is being hailed as a hero for possibly saving the lives of more than 800 students at Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy.
The suspect, later identified as 20-year-old Michael Brandon Hill, walked into the elementary school's office with an assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, DeKalb County officials told the press Wednesday.
"[I saw] a young man ready to kill anybody that he could and take any lives he wanted to," Tuff told ABC.
Barely two days ago, their paths crossed in the worst possible circumstances -- a man armed with an assault rifle had entered Antoinette Tuff's school, and she called police. On Thursday, Tuff and Kendra McCray, the 911 dispatcher on the other end of that line, were together again, sharing an emotional hug and tears before sitting down to recount the episode with CNN's Anderson Cooper. "We made it!" Tuff joyfully declared, with McCray responding, "We did." The atmosphere for the reunion was starkly different than their original encounter as voices on opposite ends of a telephone line. That happened at 12:51 p.m. Tuesday when, according to DeKalb County, Georgia, Police Department spokeswoman Mekka Parrish, authorities got their first call about a shooting at the Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy in Decatur, just outside Atlanta.
Shortly before that, the gunman had slipped into the school and gone into its main office, where he shot one round into the ground. "I knew then that it was for real," recalled Tuff, who was in there with him. "And that I could lose my life." It was then that Tuff, bookkeeper in that school's front office, dialed 911. But she wasn't the only person that could be heard a few miles away at police dispatch -- at times, there was the voice of the suspect, later identified as Michael Brandon Hill, in the background. The gunman used Tuff as a conduit to relay information to police, which in this case meant McCray, who took Tuff's call at the dispatch center. In their voices, both women sounded calm throughout the call -- even as gunshots were ringing out around Tuff, and later when the suspect reached into a bag to reload his AK-47-type assault rifle. But inside, they now admit, they were terrified.
Antoinette Tuff and 911 dispatcher meet
McCray recalled Thursday how her hands were shaking, though she knew that she couldn't reveal her fears in her voice. And Tuff said she was trying to incorporate the lessons she'd learned in church to stay strong for herself, the 800-plus elementary school students in the classrooms behind her -- and for the gunman whom she came to feel for. "I was actually praying on the inside," she recalled. "I was terrified, but I just started praying." Early in the call, Tuff was blunt in what amounted to a vital assessment of the situation: "He doesn't want the kids. He wants the police. So back off," she told McCray. In the next breath, Tuff asked him, "And what else sir?" The suspect darted from the office to outside a few times, becoming particularly "agitated" in Tuff's words when police fired back with bullets "coming from everywhere." "And I said to him, come back in here right now," said the school bookkeeper, who admitted she had to go "to the bathroom so bad" the entire ordeal. "... Don't worry about it, stay with me, we're both going to be safe," she told the man.
The scariest moment, Tuff said, came when -- after having fired shots, several times, at police positioned outside -- the suspect went into his bag, reloaded his gun and packed his pants and jacket pockets with yet more bullets. "I knew when he made the last call that he was going to go," she recalled on CNN. "Because he had loaded up to go." But the tone changed over the next few frenetic minutes, much like what was happening at the school. In the beginning, the gunman appeared "like he didn't care," giving the impression that he'd come "in purposely knowing that he was going to die and take lives with him," said Tuff. But his language, and actions, softened -- and so did Tuff's feelings for him. "I really began to feel sorry for him," she told Cooper, adding that the suspect told her he was off his medication and considering suicide. "I knew that where he was at mentally was not a good place. But I knew that he was there, for whatever particular reason, in life."
More Bookkeeper who talked down school gunman reunites with 911 dispatcher - CNN.com
And of course, we should all try to learn from this woman who wasnt supposed to be at work that day, this woman who suddenly found herself manning the schools front office, facing a mentally unstable young man with an AK-47-style rifle who said he was going to die that day. This woman President Obama called Thursday to thank for her courage. But one question I keep asking myself since hearing about Antoinette Tuff is this one: Is that kind of resolvethat kind of unflappable calm and courage in the line of fireactually something we can teach others?
If we are lucky, our parents, our spiritual leaders, our teachers, our loved ones show us how to be empathetic and compassionate. Tuff repeatedly spoke during interviews of her faith, of her pastors voice in her ear, of the practice he taught her of anchoring. Our life experiencesin Tuffs case, a disabled child, a divorce, a contemplated suicidehelp to give us courage. Each moment that takes something from us tends to give us something, too. But most of us never have, and never will, confront the kind of harrowing episode Tuff encountered. Would we hide under our desk? Would we say something to set the young man off, rather than calm him down? Would we have thought to tell him we remember seeing his band (when we didnt) or tell him we loved him, even when he held a gun in his hand?
One hopes that the right mix of role models and life experiences, prior tests and personal faith combine to give us the mettle to act as Tuff did. But that kind of response may also be something far more inherent and innate. Most of us will never know. We dont get to practice the sort of high-stakes moments where Tuff showed her remarkable gracetruly the best word to describe the confidence and compassion, calm and courage that she showed. The best we can do is try to prepare for it.
Can courage like Antoinette Tuff?s be taught?
