It was a phone call school secretary Antoinette Tuff never thought she would have to make.
But earlier this week, when she encountered a gunman hell-bent on losing his own life in a gunfight at her Georgia elementary school, she jumped into action, called the police, and successfully talked Michael Brandon Hill out of his planned massacre.
In the intense 911 tapes released, you can hear Tuff talking to 20-year-old Hill and relaying his unsettling messages to the dispatcher.
“He said he don’t care if he dies, he don’t have nothing to live for,” Tuff told the operator. “He said he’s not mentally stable.”
Tuff spoke to Hill normally, even encouraging him at times that there was more to life.
“Don’t feel bad, baby,” she can be heard telling the young man. “My husband just left me after 33 years. … I’ve got a son that’s multiple disabled.”
Later, she can be heard reassuring him that “it’s all going to be well.”
Eventually, Tuff convinced him to stand down…and surrender.
“OK, he said that they can come in now. He needs to go to the hospital.”
But just because she bravely stood up to Hill, who can clearly be heard in the background firing rounds in her presence, doesn’t mean she wasn’t absolutely terrified. It was only after the ordeal that she broke down and told the dispatcher how scary the nearly 20-minute exchange had been.
“I’m going to tell you something baby — I’ve never been so scared in all the days in my life,” she told the unidentified operator. Then, she started crying and exclaimed, “Oh, Jesus! Oh, God!”
According to NBC, Michael Brandon Hill, 20, was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, making terroristic threats and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon after he fired at least six shots in the front office of Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy near Atlanta. Police returned fire, yet no one was hurt.
We applaud Tuff for her bravery! Now someone give this lady a vacation!
SOURCE: NBC
