Meet the lifesaving school resource officers of Apalachee High
WINDER, Ga. - Two school resource officers helped bring the suspect in Wednesday’s deadly Apalachee High School shooting into custody.
The two officers have extensive backgrounds in school threat training, and they’re being hailed as heroes.
Even outgunned, Apalachee officers stopped school shooter
The accused Apalachee High School shooter used an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle, according to police, but the school resource officers had only handguns.
Officers Tanner Good and Brandon King have nearly 2,000 hours of law enforcement training combined.
Teacher Stephen Kreyenbuhl said the response from the officers was very fast, and he gave them credit for saving a lot of lives.
“Response was very fast from our SROs, probably with a matter of, you know, probably 120 seconds after gunfire, the SROs responded to the individual and made sure that he was put into custody,” Kreyenbuhl said.
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Kreyenbuhl explained that every teacher in the school has a small digital card that allows them to alert s and authorities during emergency situations.
He said they press a button four times to get the istration involved and eight times to get law enforcement sent to the high school, alerting them that a physical threat is on campus.
“I actually saw lockdown initiate before I even heard gunshots, so I had time to prepare,” Kreyenbuhl said. “Someone saw the threat even before he started to engage, so it’s almost like we knew before anything truly even happened - before lives were taken. It’s insane, the technology that we have access to.”
According to the Georgia Peace Office Standards and Training Council, which certifies the state’s public safety officials, Good and King have four hours in active shooter response training; six hours in threat assessment in schools training; and 12 hours in school safety training.
Four people were killed and nine others were injured Wednesday when, according to police, Colt Gray, 14, allegedly opened fire inside the school, located in the Barrow County seat of Winder.
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Police said they responded to alerts about an active shooter at 10:20 a.m. on Wednesday. When police arrived, they said they saw the suspect leaving the school, when he surrendered. In a late afternoon news conference, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith praised the officers for their assistance.
PHOTO GALLERY | THE VICTIMS:
Two teachers and two students were killed, and nine others were taken to area hospitals.
Police said Gray is being charged with murder and will be tried as an adult. He was a student at Apalachee High School.
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MORE: Apalachee High School s long list of school shootings
Apalachee High School is in Barrow County about 40 miles north of Atlanta, with about 1,900 students and a staff of more than 150. It’s also the site of the nation’s latest deadly school shooting.
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A new law requires annual active shooter drills at schools in Georgia, and that may have played a role in authorities’ response to Wednesday’s shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County.
It’s unclear how the gun got into the school. The student code of conduct says the school has the ability to conduct screening with handheld metal detectors.
However, students said metal detectors aren’t used at the school.
By the numbers
The Gun Violence Archive said that in Georgia schools since 2022, there have been:
- 97 gun incidents
- Five gun fatalities
- 17 gun injuries
- 72 arrests for gun incidents
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