More than another call
Fire chief of small South Carolina town talks about school shooting
TOWNVILLE, S.C. — When two volunteer firefighters rolled up to an elementary school shooting, they said they found only a wrecked black pickup truck at the playground. There was no shooter, and no one inside the truck.
Within minutes, though, they performed actions that led to them being hailed as heroes throughout their tight-knit South Carolina hometown: One went inside to help treat the wounded and the other searched for the shooter.
“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,” Townville Fire Chief Billy McAdams said Thursday during a news conference, pausing to collect himself as he recalled the harrowing events of the day before.
Authorities say the teen shot his father at their home before driving the pickup five kilometres down a country road lined with chicken houses and pine trees to Townville Elementary School. He only had to make two turns to arrive at the red brick school, where he crashed the truck, got out and fired at a door as it was being opened for recess, authorities said.
Bullets struck two students and a firstgrade teacher, and the building was immediately placed on lock down.
One of the wounded, 6-year-old Jacob Hall, remained in critical condition Thursday and was said to be fighting for his life. A sign outside a diner conveyed the sentiments of an entire community: “Pray for Jacob. Pray for Townville.”
The teacher who was shot in the shoulder and another student who was hit in the foot were treated and released from a hospital, officials said. The teen was arrested minutes after the shooting and a Family Court hearing was set for Friday to determine if he should remain in jail or be released.
The shooter never made it inside the school, and no one else was hurt, Anderson County District 4 Superintendent Joanne Avery said.
“I am tremendously proud of our injured teacher who put her own life at risk to rush her students to safety,” Avery wrote on the district’s website, saying the students and staff have been through active-shooter training over the past few years.
Classes are scheduled to resume at the school Monday, but second-grader Mattie LeCroy doesn’t want to go. Asked whether she was scared to return to school, the blondhaired 7-year-old simply nodded her head “yes” after dropping off flowers for Jacob with her mom at the town’s fire station.
The violence was a punch in the gut to people around Townville, where residents say some families have lived on the same land since before the Civil War. Outside a church where workers offered counselling and other aid to residents, both U.S. and Confederate flags decorate graves in the burial yard.
“It’s just a shock. Why in the world would that boy do that?” said Douglas Ayers, who lives on the road linking the Osborne home and the school.
Authorities said they don’t yet know a motive for the shooting.
Anderson County Sheriff John Skipper said the teen had been home-schooled.
The fire chief said he and firefighter Jamie Brock were working on his farm when they got the call about an active shooter at Townville Elementary. They rushed to the school and found the empty pickup.
Teachers told them there were wounded inside, and Brock suggested to the fire chief that he go inside to help because he was a paramedic. Alongside a school nurse, the chief attended to Jacob, who was the most seriously injured.
In the meantime, law enforcement swarmed the school and 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,” the chief said. “He was able to keep him on the ground until law enforcement could place him into custody.”
Authorities have not released the teen’s name or specific age.
Anderson County Coroner Greg Shore said the teen, crying and upset, called his grandmother’s cellphone at 1:44 p.m. Wednesday. The grandparents couldn’t understand what was going on, so they went to his home just a couple hundred yards away. When they got there, they found 47-year-old Jeffrey Osborne dead and their grandson gone.
About one minute later, authorities received a 911 call from a teacher at the school of about 300 pre-kindergarten to sixth-graders.
Authorities said the 911 calls will not be released while the investigation is ongoing.