Georgia Aborted School Shooting Examined
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: She's a bookkeeper who apparently puts on her superhero outfit in the teachers lounge phone booth. I'm Jake Tapper and this is THE LEAD. The national lead. Her name is Tuff, but her tenderness may have prevented a mass shooting. I will ask the superintendent for his reaction to the 911 calls from inside the school between a suicidal gunman with an AK-47 and the hero who stopped him. More national news, name, rank, serial number, two of those are different today. Private Bradley Manning plans to live the rest of his life as Chelsea from prison. I will talk to someone who helped him as he was struggling with his identity. And how many women does it take to force a mayor out of office? Well, now we know, as San Diego's Bob Filner finally takes a deal. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Jake Tapper. Welcome to THE LEAD. We will begin with the national lead and some breaking news out of California, where a dizzying rescue scene is unfolding. A tour bus carrying dozens of people flipped over on a busy stretch of highway about 20 miles outside Los Angeles. We're still trying to sort out the exact number of passengers who were hurt. But local media is reporting that at least five people had to be flown by helicopter to trauma centers. The crash shut down three lanes of traffic on Interstate 210, turning parts of the highway into a virtual parking lot. Let's get the very latest now from officer Saul Gomez from the California Highway Patrol. He joins now by phone. Officer Gomez, thanks for being with us. Are there any updates on the number injured and the severity of those injuries?</s>SAUL GOMEZ, CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL: Thank you, Jake, and good afternoon. We have a preliminary number of 46 people injured as a result of this traffic collision, most of which are moderate to minor injuries. We did have some trauma that were airlifted. We used a total of three airships, three air helicopters to transport these victims to local hospitals. Luckily, none are life-threatening. And the situation has stabilized for now.</s>TAPPER: Is there any idea yet about the cause of this crash?</s>GOMEZ: There's numerous witnesses that we have to interview as a result of this crash, so we're unable to determine what actually happened and what caused this bus to actually traverse four lanes and travel onto the shoulder, where it overturned.</s>TAPPER: This stretch is highway is popular for tour buses, right?</s>GOMEZ: That is correct. This stretch is highway is popular for tour buses that are going to local casinos, out of state and within the state of California. And it appears the folks traveling in this bus were headed just to a casino here in California before this incident took place.</s>TAPPER: Officer Saul Gomez with the California Highway Patrol, thank you for joining us. We appreciate it. Thank you. Her Antoinette Tuff and you can only hope every school in America employs someone as fearless and heroic as she is. Tuff is, of course, as you know by now, the school bookkeeper from Georgia who disarmed a man with an AK-47 and 500 rounds of ammunition who had slipped through the doors of the Ronald E. McNair elementary school ready to die. Tuff's only weapon was her compassion and her sympathy for a very sick young man. We now have the 911 call that Tuff made when the first shots rank out. Let's take a listen.</s>OPERATOR: Police. What is the address of your emergency?</s>ANTOINETTE TUFF, WITNESS: Ooh, he just went outside and started shooting. Ooh, can I run? 911</s>OPERATOR: Can you get somewhere safe?</s>TUFF: Yes, I got to go. He is going to see me running. And he's coming back. He said to tell them to back off. He doesn't want the kids. He wants the police. So back off. And what else, sir? He said he don't care if he die. He don't have nothing to live for. And he said he's not mentally stable. Well, don't feel bad, baby. My husband just left me after 33 years. But -- yes, you do. I mean, I'm sitting here with you. We all go through something in life. No, you don't want that. You are going to be OK. I thought the same thing. You know, I tried to commit suicide last year after my husband left me, but look at me now. I'm still working and everything is OK.</s>TAPPER: The call lasted for almost 25 minutes and true to Tuff's words, the suspect, 20-year-old Michael Brandon Hill, was taken into custody unharmed. Miraculously, every student and everyone at the school, including Tuff, came out similarly unscathed. The reaction of the school's interim superintendent was simple and spot on.</s>MICHAEL THURMOND, INTERIM SUPERINTENDENT: It's a blessed day. All of our children are safe.</s>TAPPER: Michael Thurmond, interim superintendent of DeKalb County Schools, joins me now. Michael, thank you for being with us. Tell me about the moments you spent with Antoinette Tuff after she made this call. What we didn't play just then was after the young man was apprehended, her relief, her terror comes through on the call. She was putting on a very brave face, but she was terrified.</s>THURMOND: Absolutely. I first engaged Ms. Tuff sitting there on the sidewalk on a curb after the alleged shooter had been apprehended. Tears were streaming down her face. But, at that point, you knew that you were in the presence of a hero. She's such a compassionate and loving person. And she had literally placed her life on the line to save the lives of hundreds of children and employees.</s>TAPPER: She's a bookkeeper. Did you know her before this happened? Does she have a reputation for just being a very compassionate person? If she's a bookkeeper, she probably doesn't deal with the children all that much.</s>THURMOND: Principal Bolden and all of her colleagues stated one thing, that this is who this lady is. She's loving and she's caring and she believes. She has a tremendously strong faith in her God. And I think that is what carried her through during this very difficult time. This could have turned out in a much, much more horrific situation. She talked the gunman down, bought time for law enforcement to arrive and saved countless lives.</s>TAPPER: That must have been a huge relief for you as the interim superintendent. What was your reaction when you got on the scene with memories of Columbine and Newtown in your head? What was going through your mind?</s>THURMOND: We were listening to events as they unfolded. It was actually on the video. And we were listening to the radio. We were blue-lighting to the scene. And all of these thoughts, as you said, Columbine, Sandy Hook, were all going through my mind. But my one goal and mission was to get there, get to the scene, work with law enforcement and save our kids. But I'm so proud of principal Bolden. I'm so proud of the staff and I'm especially proud of Ms. Tuff. They leaned on their training. They did exactly what they were supposed to do. The kids responded well. And thank God no one was injured and there was no loss of life.</s>TAPPER: No, God bless. It's a great thing that nothing happened. Let me just ask you one thing. There's obviously a big debate going on right now about whether or not there should be police officers in schools, security officers in schools, whether or not teachers should be armed. We can't rely on there being an Antoinette Tuff at every school. What's your take on that?</s>THURMOND: Well, first of all, we need to look at really what's going on in this country. When our children can't be safe in school, we need to look at the entire spectrum, whether it's gun control, whether it's -- particularly as it relates to people who might be mentally disturbed or have psychological issues getting access to high-powered weapons. We're going to look at everything we do within the DeKalb School District, lesson learned, look at our strengths, our weaknesses, learn from it, and do everything we can to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.</s>TAPPER: But my understanding, sir, is that there is a buzzer system and there is some security at that school, and this young man just followed a parent who had been buzzed in into the school. Is there any additional security that you think you should be considering in the DeKalb County schools?</s>THURMOND: Well, Jake, it's not generally understood, but the front office is a part of the security system. If an unauthorized person enters the school building, particularly like McNair, the people in the front office now is a redundancy. And that's why one of the reasons Ms. Tuff was in the position she was to engage anyone in the building that should not be there. Obviously, we're going to look at how he got into the building. But we're proud that the redundancy worked. A human being engaged the intruder, and she was just smart enough, brave enough, compassionate enough to bring him and to stop him and to redirect what could have been a murderous intent.</s>TAPPER: And lastly, sir, and without question most importantly, how are the kids?</s>THURMOND: The kids are fine. The little kids, some, they just wanted to get home to mom and dad. And they are so resilient. And I just want to thank the parents as well. We have not said a lot about them, but in this crisis situation, they were there, they were anxious. Some were frustrated, but at the same time they supported the plan that was in place. They worked with law enforcement. And when we delivered those little babies over to the reunification location, it was just a sight to see to see them putting their arms around their kids. We had 1,000-plus parents, 600 kids, and every kid went home. And we're just so blessed and proud that that occurred.</s>TAPPER: I feel -- we were looking -- we were showing some pictures of the kids being put back in their parents' arms, and it's just moving watching that, thinking about what might have happened and thank God and thank Antoinette Tuff that it did not. Michael Thurmond, interim superintendent of DeKalb County Schools, thank you so much for your time.</s>THURMOND: Thank you, Jake.</s>TAPPER: Coming up on</s>THE LEAD: His secret life was exposed as he fought to save himself from prison. Now Bradley Manning says he wants to be known as Chelsea Manning and he wants hormone therapy. Will you pay for it? Plus, he's the highest paid actor on television who also happens to support Democrats. So, why are big-name Republicans like Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin suddenly big fans of Ashton Kutcher?