A School Clerk persuaded Gunman To Lay Down Weapons
Tuesday's terrifying incident at an elementary school near Atlanta — in which a gunman with an assault rifle and other weapons entered the building — ended with no one being hurt after a school clerk apparently spent about an hour talking to the young man. She says she persuaded him to put his gun down and surrender.
"I just started praying for him," Antoinette Tuff tells Atlanta's Channel 2 Action News. "I just started talking to him ... and let him know what was going on with me and that it would be OK. And then let him know that he could just give himself up. ... I told him to put [the guns] on the table, empty his pockets. He had me actually get on the intercom and tell everybody he was sorry too. But I told them, 'He was sorry, but do not come out of their rooms.' ... I give it all to God, I'm not the hero. I was terrified."
In an interview with ABC-TV's World News with Diane Sawyer, Tuff says
"The school clerk said she tried to keep the assailant calm by asking him his name but, she said, at first he wouldn't tell it to her. Then, he began listening to her tell her life story. She said she told him about how her marriage fell apart after 33 years and the 'roller coaster' of opening her own business."
Tuff says she told 20-year-old Michael Brandon Hill that "OK, we all have situations in our lives. I went through a tragedy myself."
Then, ABC writes, "Tuff made the request that she said helped end the standoff. She said she asked the suspect to put his weapons down, empty his pockets and backpack and lay on the floor. 'I told the police he was giving himself up. I just talked him through it,' she said."
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http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/08/21/214085753/school-clerk-in-georgia-persuaded-gunman-to-lay-down-weapons
I shudder to think what could have happened without her.
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Excellent observation!
My day has officially been ruined. I'm really glad that nobody was hurt or killed, but at the same time, these incidents are emotionally devastating. It's infuriating to think that unstable, assault rifle toting individuals are now bringing elementary school kids into their sick GBCW fantasies. 
