Teacher who confronted Indiana school shooter lauded
NOBLESVILLE (AP) — An Indiana middle school student armed with two handguns opened fire inside his science classroom on Friday, wounding a classmate and a teacher whose swift intervention was credited with saving lives, authorities said.
The shooter, who had asked to be dismissed from the class before returning with the guns, was arrested “extremely quickly” after the incident around 9 a.m. at Noblesville West Middle School, police Chief Kevin Jowitt said. Authorities did not release his name or say whether he had been in trouble before but indicated he likely acted alone.
Seventh-grader Ethan Stonebraker said the student was acting suspiciously when he walked into the room while the class was taking a test. He said science teacher Jason Seaman likely averted a catastrophe.
“Our science teacher immediately ran at him, swatted a gun out of his hand and tackled him to the ground,” Stonebraker said. “If it weren’t for him, more of us would have been injured for sure.”
Stonebraker told ABC News that Seaman threw a basketball at the shooter and ran toward the bullets as screaming students sought cover behind a table.
He said he also knew the suspected gunman, whom he described as “a nice kid most of the times” and said he often joked with the classmates.
“It’s just a shock he would do something like that,” Stonebraker said.
The attack comes a week after an attack at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas that killed eight students and two teachers, and months after the school attack that killed 17 people in Parkland, Florida. The Florida attack inspired students from that school and others throughout the country to call for more restrictions on access to guns.
Seaman’s brother, Jeremy, told The Indianapolis Star that his brother was shot three times and was undergoing surgery. He said he was conscious after the shooting and spoke with his wife, telling her he was okay.
Seaman, the teacher, 29, of Noblesville was in good condition Friday night, police spokesman Lt. Bruce Barnes said. The injured student, an unidentified girl, was in critical condition, he added.
“There were no apparent injuries to the alleged shooter,” Barnes said in a news release.
Seaman, according to his brother, was a defensive end for Southern Illinois University’s football team and has never been a person to run away.
Hours after the shooting, law enforcement agents sealed off part of an upscale neighborhood in Noblesville but were not commenting on whether the suspect lived there.