Georgia school employee hailed as 'real hero' for talking gunman into giving up

Atlanta (CNN) -- A man slips behind someone else into a packed elementary school with AK-47 type weapon. He goes into the office and shoots at the ground, then darts between there and outside to fire at approaching police.

So what do you do?

If you're Antoinette Tuff, who works in the front office at Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy just outside Atlanta, you don't run. You talk. You divulge your personal struggles to the gunman, you tell him you love him, you even proactively offer to walk outside with him to surrender so police won't shoot.

And then the nightmare ends -- with the suspect, later identified as Michael Brandon Hill, taken into custody and no one inside or outside the Decatur school even hurt, despite the gunfire.

Chief: Shooter able to walk into school

Police: Gunman carried AK-47 into school

How she convinced shooter to surrender

Photos: Shots fired at Georgia school

Suspected school shooter in custody

 

"Let me tell you something, babe," Tuff tells the dispatcher at the end of the dramatic 911 call, obtained by CNN affiliate WXIA, that recounts her minutes of valor and terror. "I've never been so scared in all the days of my life. Oh, Jesus."

This brief outburst of emotion, moments after police entered the school Tuesday, was in stark contrast to her cool, calm demeanor as heard earlier on that 911 call.

As a go-between, she relayed his demands that police refrain from using their radios and "stop all movement," or else the suspect would shoot. By the end -- with police themselves having never directly talked to him -- Tuff and the gunman were talking about where he would put his weapon, how he'd empty his pockets, and where he'd lay down before authorities could get him.

On Wednesday, a day after the ordeal, DeKalb County Police Chief Cedric Alexander hailed the school employee as a "real hero." Nine months after the horrific massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Tuff treated the gunman in her school -- who admittedly was "not mentally stable" and had about 500 rounds of ammunition -- as a person first, and a suspect second.

No one wants to think about what might have happened had she, or the shooter, acted differently.

"She was in there, she was able to talk him down," Alexander said. "Had that not been the case, this could have certainly turned into something very, very ugly very quickly."

Inside the suspect's mind

On Wednesday night, the 20-year-old Hill was in a Georgia jail awaiting a still-undermined initial court appearance.

Authorities are still hammering out exactly what charges he will face. Police spokeswoman Mekka Parish has said they would include aggravated assault on a police officer, terroristic threats and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Ray Davis, the lead detective on the case, added that false imprisonment and "several weapons charges" likely will be included as well.

Whenever the charges come down, Hill will waive his initial court appearance, said Claudia Saari, the circuit public defender for the Stone Mountain Judicial Circuit. She said members of her office's mental health division are handling his case, declining to make any further comment beyond that.

This week's incident is not Hill's first run-in with the law. He has a criminal history in DeKalb and neighboring Henry County that, while not "lengthy," does include incidents of violence, Davis notes.

Specifically, Hill pleaded guilty in July to making "terroristic threats and acts" against his brother.

Georgia school shooting suspect was arrested in March

Henry County court records show that, in addition to three years of probation, he was ordered to attend anger management classes. But that county's district attorney, James Wright, said Wednesday that there's no indication that Hill completed them.

As to any connection to McNair Discovery Learning Academy, why he might have gone into it armed, and what he planned to do once there, authorities have not outlined a motive or a detailed plan.

Being from DeKalb County, Hill "possibly had been (at the school) there before speaking with some people in the administration," Davis said. But "there's no indication he had a grievance with the school."

The suspect did take a picture of himself with the assault rifle -- which he'd taken "from the house of acquaintance," said Davis, who did not say whether the weapon was stolen -- sometime before entering the school.

So did Hill go in intent on killing people?

Davis responded: "I believe there was something else, but I don't want to go into detail."

Some clues as to mindset are evident in the dramatic 911 call.

With Tuff acting as the intermediary, the suspect said "he should have just went to the mental hospital instead of doing this, because he's not on his medication," Hill says on the call.

The gunman, again via Tuff, insists he wants nothing to do with the school's students, "he wants the police."

The school worker then adds, "He said he don't care if he dies, he don't have nothing to live for."

Chief: It 'absolutely' could have been 'another Sandy Hook'

While Tuff seemingly kept her cool inside the school, outside a swarm of law enforcement was springing into action.

Police reacted "very, very quickly" -- including some officers who took up positions with long rifles -- "to engage the threat" and prepare for the worst, said Alexander.

"We can all make a reasonable assumption that he came there to do some harm," the police chief said, recalling last year's school massacre in Connecticut that ended with 20 students, six adults and gunman Adam Lanza dead. "He entered a school, an elementary school with children in it ... to do one of two things: Either to do harm to those children and/or any first-responders."

Thankfully, that didn't happen.

In fact, the suspect never went beyond the school's offices, and never near its classrooms. While he fired some rounds at police -- and one officer shot back at him -- no one was hit outside either.

And while there initially were fears that the suspect also had explosives, further tests indicated that was not the case: He came in with the rifle and a bag of ammunition but no explosives.

A day later, community members and leaders are offering praise for Tuff and police, as well as gratitude that the story did not turn tragic.

"Was the potential there to have another Sandy Hook?" admits Alexander, the police chief. "Absolutely." 

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