Reviewing the use of panic buttons after Georgia high school shooting

Published: Sep 04, 2024 Duration: 00:03:51 Category: News & Politics

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Thank you, Robert Developing tonight. Mourners at a Georgia High school leaving balloons and flowers at the flagpole of Apalachee High School in Winder Georgia. Tonight. We know the names of the victims who were killed, two students, Mason Shermer Horn and Christian Angulo. Both 14, also two math teachers, Christina Ami and Richard Aspinwall. Authorities say teachers quickly called police using their ID cards. They have a button on that ID and they press it so many times and it alerts us where that incident is occurring. We got multiple notifications as the shooting was going on from the teachers where to respond in that general area. It also locks down the school uh screens. Now the shooter identified as Colt Gray was a new student. He surrendered when confronted by police. Authorities say they previously investigated tips that he was making threats online. So let's talk now with our crime and safety expert, Ken Jefferson, we appreciate your being with us. First of all that ID button, we have that panic button in Duval County Schools. We do have that button here in Jacksonville and that saves a lot of time. So what would you say as far as evaluating the response time there in Georgia. Well, because of the panic button, the response time was, was within minutes. Um, they alerted, uh, the school, they alerted law enforcement, the school had already been placed on lockdown by, by the time law enforcement was notified, which was a big help. And what did the teachers and the students do to manage the whole situation? You think that may be helped? Well, they're all on the same page. Everybody's on the same page. They began to, uh, barricade themselves within the school. Uh, if they're in the classroom, uh, if they weren't in the classroom, they were running to get out of the way or, or, or go away from the gunfire, the sound of the gunfire. Everybody was on the same page because of that panic button and like we say, we have it here in the school. So it's fairly new. But if one or two teachers press it, even if they don't press it the right number of times for the code, the police are gonna go, oh, something's wrong and something's going on. We need to be at that school. So that's a good thing. So let's talk about this, this, uh, alleged shooter. He was 14 years old when he was making threats. Possibly. So why couldn't they arrest him then? Well, there was an alert, uh, to the FBI, that a person was making threats, the FBI then forward that information to the local sheriff's office, uh, in Georgia. At that particular time, they located this particular individual who they thought was the one making, um, the threats. Once they interviewed him and they interviewed his father, uh, they concluded that they had no probable cause to make an arrest. You have to have that probable cause. You have to have proof, uh, beyond a doubt that this person, uh, is alleged to have committed this particular crime. It's a very serious crime just to make a threat against uh uh a school shooting up a school. That's a second degree felony and he could spend 15 years in prison upon conviction, but they couldn't prove that that was the kid. He was making those threats back when he was 13. That's correct. That's why there was no, no arrest. They could not prove it had they been able to prove it. He would have been arrested and possibly uh convicted and all of this would have been a mute point. And uh Mr Jefferson was telling me that one big question on his mind. We don't have the answer to this is how in the world did he get an uh an a art style rifle in day one in his school? New school? To him. How did that possibly happen? Iii I can't fathom how he got that particular rifle in that school. Uh You had school resource officers there. Uh I don't know if they, they go through a detector I don't know if he went out at an inconvenient time, uh, to sneak it in or, or what. But the best thing that happened, two best things that happened was the panic button and the fact that the kids would not allow him to come to his algebra class for whatever reason, they would not let him in that door. Well, it's just another sad thing and, and awfully close to home here and we have our hearts and our prayers go out to those families. I know that community is pulling together, but we appreciate your being with us today. Thanks so much Heather.

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