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A volunteer firefighter who tackled a 14-year-old gunman, who shot two students and a teacher outside a South Carolina primary school after killing his father at their home, has been hailed a hero.
Jamie Brock, a 30-year veteran of the Townville Volunteer Fire Department down the road from the town’s elementary school, “just took him down” and stopped the teen before he could get inside the school, John Skipper, Anderson County sheriff, said.
The sheriff said the fire station was close to the school and Mr Brock arrived before the police.
The volunteer firefighter doesn’t want attention for his actions, said Scott Stoller, of Anderson County Emergency Management.
He “wants to remain humble and quiet about it” as he believes “he did nothing any of the other volunteer firefighters wouldn’t have done,” Mr Stoller said.
Regardless, Mr Stoller said, “firefighter Brock is absolutely a hero.”
The shooting began on Wednesday afternoon in the rural area of Townville near the Georgia-South Carolina border. Authorities say the teenager killed his father, 47-year-old Jeffrey Osborne, and then drove to Townville Elementary School, about 2 miles away.
The shooter drove a truck into the school car park and immediately started firing as he got out and moved toward the school, Mr Skipper said.
One student was shot in the leg and the other in the foot, sheriff’s Captain Garland Major said. Both students were male. The teacher was hit in the shoulder.
Billy McAdams, Townville fire chief, said he and Mr Brock were working on his farm when they got the call about an active shooter at the school. They rushed there and found the empty pickup.
Teachers told them there were wounded people inside, and Mr Brock suggested to the fire chief that he goes inside to help because he was a paramedic. Alongside a school nurse, the chief attended to six-year-old Jacob Hall, who was the most seriously injured.
In the meantime, police swarmed the school and Mr Brock looked for the shooter, finding him near the back of the school building.
“Feeling it was imperative to the safety of the students, the teachers and all the responders that were on site, he immediately confronted and subdued that shooter,” Mr McAdams said during a news conference on Thursday, pausing to collect himself as he recalled the harrowing events.
“He was able to keep him on the ground until law enforcement could place him into custody.
“This was more than just another call to us. This incident occurred in the school where our children and the children of the community attend,” Mr McAdams said.
“In the past 24 hours, the word ‘hero’ has been used to describe the actions of firefighter Brock and other responders,” Mr McAdams said. “Well, we agree. But we also believe the teachers and the staff of Townville Elementary School, who protected those children in the moments following those gunshots, are heroes just as well.”
Joanne Avery, Anderson 4 Superintendent, said staff saved lives by flawlessly implementing active-shooter training drills conducted with students over the past few years – at Townville Elementary, most recently just last week.
All district administrators were trained on Monday on a new crisis response app on their mobile phones, which included an active-shooter scenario.
Though shot in the shoulder, the teacher “was with-it enough” to close the door, lock it and barricade the students, Ms Avery said.
“If he’d got in the school, it would’ve been a different scenario,” she said.
The shooter then fired toward students on the playground but missed. A teacher who heard the first gunshot was able to get those students safely inside, Ms Avery said.
Authorities said they did not yet know a motive for the shooting and they were not sure if the students and teacher were targeted. The sheriff said the teen had been homeschooled.
“There are no racial undertones there. There’s no terrorism involved,” Mr Major said. “We’re confident we have the sole shooter and no one else is involved.”
One of the students and the teacher were released from the hospital on Wednesday evening, AnMed Health spokeswoman Juana Slade said. Sandy Dees, Greenville Health System spokeswoman, said Jacob remained in critical condition.
