Watch Live: Congressional Hearing on IRS Scandal

Live Now on TheBlaze Radio: ‘The Buck Sexton Show’

Crime

Armed Guard Stops School Shooter After He Opened Fire at Atlanta Middle School

Jan. 31, 2013 10:06pm Jason Howerton

UPDATE: Piers Morgan Claims Armed Guard Was Unable to Stop Atlanta School Shooting

–

Armed Guard Stops School Shooter After He Opened Fire at Atlanta Middle School

Authorities stage at Price Middle school in Atlanta Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013, after a child was shot. Credit: AP

ATLANTA (AP) — A student opened fire at his middle school Thursday afternoon, wounding a 14-year-old in the neck before an armed officer working at the school was able to get the gun away, police said.

Multiple shots were fired in the courtyard of Price Middle School just south of downtown about 1:50 p.m. and the one boy was hit, Atlanta Police Chief George Turner said. In the aftermath, a teacher received minor cuts, he said.

The wounded boy was taken “alert, conscious and breathing” to Grady Memorial Hospital, said police spokesman Carlos Campos. Grady Heath System Spokeswoman Denise Simpson said the teen had been discharged from the hospital Thursday night. Campos said charges against the shooter were pending.

Police swarmed the school of about 400 students after reports of the shooting while a crowd of anxious parents gathered in the streets, awaiting word on their children. Students were kept at the locked-down school for more than two hours before being dismissed.

Investigators believe the shooting was not random and that something occurred between the two students that may have led to it.

Schools Superintendent Erroll Davis said the school does have metal detectors.

“The obvious question is how did this get past a metal detector?” Davis asked about the gun. “That’s something we do not know yet.”

The armed resource officer who took the gun away was off-duty and at the school, but police didn’t release details on him or whether he is regularly at Price. Since 20 children and six adults were shot to death at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in December, calls for armed officers in every school have resonated across the country.

Hours after the Atlanta shooting, several school buses loaded with children pulled away from the school and stopped in front of a church about a half-block away. Parents tried boarding the buses. Police who initially tried to stop the parents, relented and screamed, “Let them off!” about the students.

Busses arrive at a church carrying children from Price Middle school in Atlanta on Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013, after a child was shot at the school. Credit: AP

Authorities stage at Price Middle school in Atlanta Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013, after a child was shot. Credit: AP

Authorities stage at Price Middle school in Atlanta Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013, after a child was shot. A 14-year-old boy was wounded outside the school Thursday afternoon and a fellow student was in custody as a suspect, authorities said. No other students were hurt. Credit: AP

James Bolton was at work when his sister called saying a teen had been shot at his son’s school and was in the crowd as parents began swarming the fleet of buses.

“Move, I see my son, I see mine!” he said, running up to embrace James Bolton Jr. “As long as I got this one back I’m OK,” he said, holding his son’s head against his chest as parents nearby frantically searched for their children.

Bolton Jr. said he was in class when the intercom sounded and a school official announced the building was under immediate lockdown.

“They told us we had to be quiet,” Bolton told The Associated Press. “They said something went on in the courtyard.” Bolton said he was unaware that anyone had been shot until a reporter asked him about it.

Shakita Walker, whose daughter is an eighth-grader at the school, said she received a text from her that said, “Ma somebody’s shooting and somebody got shot.” Walker, who works at another school, said she jumped in her car and was thinking “just hurry up and get there.”

Walker said her daughter called to tell her that they were being kept in the gymnasium, but she said she was anxious to see her to make sure she was OK.

The fear and anxiety was palpable in the crowd, as one person yelled, “Does anyone know what happened?”

Superintendent Davis sympathized with concerned parents who complained that it took too long for students to be released from the building. He said emergency procedures were followed according to protocol and school district officials would meet Friday to review their response. Calls to the school district were not immediately returned.

Mayor Kasim Reed condemned gun violence in a statement shortly after the shooting and said counselors were at the school to meet with students, faculty and family members.

“Gun violence in and around our schools is simply unconscionable and must end,” Reed said. “Too many young people are being harmed, and too many families are suffering from unimaginable and unnecessary grief.”

Outside the school, Laquanda Pittman said she still hasn’t heard from her sixth-grade son. She said she heard the news of the shooting on TV and immediately came to the school.

“All types of stuff went through my head. I’m wondering whether it was my child who got shot, is my child OK, did he see what happened?” Pittman said.

She said she just wants to see her son.

“As a parent, you just think you can send your child to school and you hope they come home OK,” she said.

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

Back to The Blaze »

Comments (235)

chris72sax
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 8:14am
I’d rather have 10-20 physically strong, weopons trained teachers/coaches/administrators spread all around the school. Pay for their training and give them a bonus. A resource officer is very expensive and can be easily tracked.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
angelcat
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 8:06am
I can’t help but wonder if the constant publicity about Sandy Hook and talk about guns in the media now is actually encouraging more shootings. Fame is very attractive to those who have mental issues.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
lgccac
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 8:00am
The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Tickdog
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 7:56am
well fancy that.. a man with a gun stopped a criminal with a gun… hmmmm now how did that happen.. i thought guns kill people.. If that is the case why didnt the 2 guns team up and kill everyone in the school… hmm maybe it has something to do with the person holding the gun? you think????????????

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
ellietoo
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 7:55am
It disgusts me that the media and our government always lash out about “gun” violence when there is an attack by a mentally deranged person. No one ever mentions the fact that most people these days have been raised on TV and movies that depict violence most of the time. No one mentions that kids grow up playing very violent video games in place of interacting with parents and friends.

Guns don’t go down to a school and shoot people. A disturbed, twisted mind devises the idea and then carries it out. The left wants the citizens of this country disarmed for a reason that has nothing to do with violence. The US has a history of citizens arming and protecting them selves. We cannot wait for a scaled down police force to save us from the nut cases and terrorists in this country.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
frogg
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 6:49am
Oh heck!!!! What is the Left going to do now??????????????? It worked!!!!!!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Willik
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 6:48am
I notice the gun was carried past the metal detectors in some way. It just proves that a determined, armed miscreant will find a way to avoid such ‘impediments,’ be it schools or guards protecting especially hated public figures.
Hurray for the guard for doing his job by preventing any collateral damage. In this case, though, it appears there was just the one target.
There is a lot more to this story, I’m sure. Gang banging? Girl?
Who knows?

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Mapache
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 6:40am
Didn’t the student understand that he’d be suspended for bringing a gun to school. I think we need bigger signs about it being a gun free zone,

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
jamestoms
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 6:39am
No safety here in central Va., walk right in do what you want, but then again if you investigate a little further you will find many degenerates working as educators and thats not hidden, you can decern this by comments on inter school emails, you’d be REALLY surprised. I took my boy out of public school years ago, now 36, private school.

Public school like public life is filthy, ignorant and a liberal progressive godless training ground, and it has worked, they get an A= for that!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Brainmuffin
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 6:27am
The government conditioned nut jobs are really coming out of the woodwork.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
raderby
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 6:00am
you guys are not getting this – this was, by the facts reported, a vendetta against one person, kid A after kid B

not against society, and ultimately oneself. So the kid with the gun was out to shoot one kid – or so it looks – and not just “rack up points” by killing everything in a video game – like real world of innocents.
NOT THE SAME just because a gun was at a school. But is not that how many people view this? gun+school = mass murder, ergo gun bad template?

but:
The psych trail leads to conclusions every time if the idiots in the media are willing to admit it. Every one of the major shot-ups in the last ten years were of a same or similar pattern, mentally, and it seems all or most may have been on anti-D’s…….
(except perhaps Hassan – he was just a mozzi killer with mental problems – but I swear he, too, has that absent look in his that is caused by anti-Ds. – and that twit gave PLENTY of warning in advance- and the PC fairies in the military just ignored all the signs.)

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
raderby
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 5:49am
armed guard – an off-duty cop? Or just a volunteer or part time worker at the school?

DOESN’T THIS PROVE what the NRA was saying? And, in this case, we had a p.o.’ed kid at another kid – vendetta stuff- not the drug-assisted looney misfit with mental probs going POSTAL on innocent victims. SO really, no symmetry here. EXCEPT this proves someone with a gun and trained with it inside of a school is one heck of a deterrent to high counts of lives lost.

It is only common sense – but I guess that is quite revolutionary since we have been operating in make believe land for 5 years.

AND – going POSTAL – where were all the gun control advocates during the era of postal worker losing it and bring in guns to wipe their co-workers?

And you know how the USPS dealt with it? Do you know the amount of shrink scrip writing that has gone on to postal employees? We have a very sedated and mood-altered post office.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
NoSleeper
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 4:58am
Some of you disgust me – race has nothing to do with it. The story isn’t going to get as much attention for several reasons:
1) body count too low (0);
2) no ‘assault weapon’ involved;
3) no random killings so inadequate level of misery for the media to feed off of;
4) armed guard did not shoot the attacker so no positive gun play;
5) failure of ‘security’ to keep the gun out of school, which is an indictment of all such measures that require you to give up your individual liberty for the (mis)perception of security.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Vilgax
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 4:40am
When guns save lives…..the media is disinterested.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
BruceB
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 4:18am
Remember the LSD in candy?
Ya mannnn .Far out dude!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
media-bias-steals-elections
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 3:57am
The more news coverage that violence, drop outs, drug deals, rapes, sex-ting, bullying, political indoctrination, climate-change, and of course the high employment rate for new college graduates opens the door wide open to new businesses that will assist parents to either home school, or make it easier for parents to reward and punish school systems that are ineffective or generally not the best learning environments money can buy?

Politicians could assist that movement by reducing the tax burdens of citizens that enroll their students in less expensive (think unions, pensions, etc.) learning environments? There is a reason why the Chinese are going to South America reminding people about how an American ally is treated, Israel?

There is a reason why labor unions can organize for jobs that are gauranteed to exist, the public sector, yet they can donate to political parties?

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
TreeTrimmerJim
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 3:55am
Prior to 1863 in Democrat controlled southern states how many black Americans had guns?

If black American’s had guns would the KKK been so eager to attack them?

Civil Rights Act of 1871 was another effort to fully acknowledge the unalienable rights of black America. The NRA was created in 1871. As part of their efforts the NRA worked to arm and train black Americans.

Black Codes were created after Reconstruction to prevent black Americans from voting and bearing arms.

Ask black Americans how being disarmed in Washington DC and Chicago is like being a black American in pre Civil War southern states.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
klg1956
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 2:52am
Not so fast……can’t wait to see if they are going to charge the “off duty” armed resource officer…..that’s SOP for this Obama admin…..charge the hero and protect the bad guy so they can sue! It wasn’t a Union armed guard……that’s the main story here!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
RaydocX
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 2:21am
so in a gun free zone, a security guard interrupted the criminal act and saved lives…
i hope the victims come through all right.
i hope school administrators see that this does work.
i suspect LaPierre could care less if people in the media apologize for the way he was treated, so long as they come around to admit what was being said is worth trying.
once again, we’re left waiting to see what the facts are… in this case it’s already clear that a metal detector didn’t help protecdt the school…

sadly, NOTHING is fool proof.
But this could have been much worse.
sad the MSM won’t cover it honestly.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Jake Dog2
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 2:15am
My bet is that this was gang related but will never come out.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
RAMJR
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 2:07am
It would be interesting to ask the parents at this school, if have a law abiding citizen with a gun to stop this…is better than a ‘pair of scissors’ as homeland and Obama just released in another million dollar agenda video flop.
You won’t here about this on 95% of the media…that is bought and sold.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
AmericaMustBeFree
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 1:49am
So it does pay to have a armed guard around!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
sandrunner
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 1:44am
A armed guard at the school….well it actually did worked.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Serenabit
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 1:05am
“The armed resource officer who took the gun away was off-duty and at the school” Maybe they should have been full time and “On-Duty” or better yet get rid of this insane “gun Free” crap and allow teachers and administrators that are willing and legally certified to carry concealed weapons. A little common sense can go a long way!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
katzkiner
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 12:14am
A little math class: 1000 parents X $100 per year= $100,000 Deputy sheriffs start @ $32,000 in Eastern NC. Why are children not protected? One good cop is worth his weight in GOLD.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply

It appears that you have Javascript Disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser preferences for a better user experience on TheBlaze. You can not comment without Javascript enabled.