'It was carnage, blood everywhere' | Barrow Sheriff recounts response to shooting at Apalachee High

Published: Sep 04, 2024 Duration: 00:03:59 Category: News & Politics

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So ironically enough, um our county had invested in a uh a notification system called SGS about started working on this about a year ago. We implemented it about a week and a half ago. Um Yesterday morning, around 10 ish, the times are still coming in. We got the alerts from the synths that we had uh an active shooter at Appalachian High School. Yes. So the teachers each have an ID with their picture on it and they have a button on that ID and they press it so many times and it alerts us where that incident is occurring. So it sends us a GPS coordinate of that actual ID to the foot of where that person's at. So 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 screens. We're on lockdown and the teachers know to go in and lock the doors and they begin doing that as well. So nine of our people, we prevented more deaths with our Sr Os interacting with the suspect within minutes, five or six minutes, they come around the hallway. Uh They uh were armed. Obviously, he was, they interacted with him. They gave him verbal commands and he dropped the gun, went on the ground and they took him into custody immediately. Uh They're telling me within six minutes of the first strategic hit on the thing of the alert that he was in custody by the time. So um extremely proud of them. Uh The proud, what I'm most proud of even in a bad situation like this is those teachers were heroes. I want that to be known. They were heroes. They saved a lot of Children. So uh our sr Os engaged him quickly, he listened to the verbal commands. Um and he, he complied with our orders. He got on the ground and he was taken into custody without incident. It was carnage, there was blood everywhere. Um You could smell the uh you could smell the gun powder. Uh You could smell a lot of screaming, yelling, uh a little bit of chaos, but I'm very proud you have to kind of sit back and you have to count to about three and, and kind of slow, slow your breathing down and start looking around and, and you start, people start tactically start doing what they're supposed to be doing. And they, because we train on this, this just this last year, we had an active shooter drill last school year on a on a teacher work day at one of our local middle schools and did this exact thing and that was before we had implemented Syn GIC, this company that had the I DS. Um So it, it, it, your training kicks in and you start. All right, let's go to work. Uh once you render a and, and whatnot, but uh could not say, could not be prouder of our Ems and fire, could not be proud of our ambulances. They backed up to the building, we loading kids up, Toni and, and folks and uh those nine people that were injured or living today and they expect to live and, uh just, uh, you know, our heart breaks and goes out to the families of the four victims that were killed and murdered. That's what this is, is a murder. I have family that works in that school, direct family. You know, so it, it's in kids, friends, family, friends, kids that I've coached kids that I've prayed over. Um, it's a, it's a tough situation to, I don't know if I'll ever get over it. Um, I don't know if I'll ever get over the sounds. I don't know if I'll ever get over having to do the notifications to the family that their baby is not coming home.

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