Students describe chaos in Fern Creek shooting
A high school freshman heard another student shout and curse in a third-floor hallway of Fern Creek High School Tuesday afternoon. The 14-year-old watched his teenage classmate flail his hands in the air and, when a teacher tried to calm him, pull out a gun.
He fired a single shot — one that wounded one student, panicked a city and ignited a three-hour-long manhunt for the teenage gunman.
The shooter fled the school just after the shooting, reported to authorities around 1 p.m. The school went into lockdown and the injured boy was taken to University Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
SWAT teams descended on the 1,350-student high school, checking room by room, floor by floor, for weapons or shooters.
Chaos erupted. Terrified children texted their parents from their hiding places: under desks, dark corners of classrooms and inside closets.
"I'm alive, you don't have to worry about me," Tiffani Brandon's 14-year-old son wrote her. "I'll be home today."
Several students said they heard the shot, but didn't recognize what it was at first. They thought it was a balloon popping, or furniture falling over. But then a crowd of kids started running and screaming.
Betty Baker's 17-year-old daughter texted her mother that she was leaving lunch and heading up the stairs. A throng was running down.
"Shots fired," they screamed. "Run."
Sam Fraser, the 14-year-old freshman who witnessed the shooting, ran to his next class as the announcement was made that the school was under a level 5 lockdown. His teacher shut the door, turned off the lights and closed the blinds.
"You see this stuff on TV," said Crystal Griffith, whose 17-year-old daughter texted her a photo of herself hiding in a dark corner and wrote that someone was shooting. "It's not supposed to happen here."
Berlynne Davis, a substitute teacher, heard the commotion and peeked out of her first-floor classroom. Security officers ran by, shouting, "lock down, lock down." She was terrified, she said. She ushered the nine students in her special education class into a closet and prayed.
"This is senseless, this is unacceptable," Jefferson County Public Schools spokesman Ben Jackey said at a brief afternoon news conference, as the suspect remained at large. "This cannot happen in our school. This is not the type of thing the students should be exposed to."
Police offered little about the suspected gunman or their search for him. Police spokesman Phil Russell said it was an "isolated incident" though declined to say whether police believe the victim was an intended target or merely caught in the melee.
Jody Duncan, spokeswoman for the Louisville Emergency Management Agency, said they were searching for a teenager, 6-foot-5-inches tall and wearing a gray hoodie. He was believed to be on foot and armed, because police had not found a weapon during their search of the school.
The Louisville Metro Police Department, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and the Emergency Management Agency operated out of the Fern Creek Fire Department station, next door to the school.
SWAT teams cleared each classroom, one by one. They shouted that they were looking for a teen in a green T-shirt and a hoodie.
"That was the scariest part," said Jalynne Davis, a junior. "I started shaking."
Police frisked each student, then led them out of the school, each of them instructed to keep their hands on their heads.
Hundreds of frenzied parents rushed to the school, clogging the surrounding streets. Authorities routed them to a nearby park, where students were counted and released.
A helicopter buzzed overhead and police with high-powered weapons were in view, searching the nearby woods for the gunman.
Louisville Metro Police spokeswoman Alicia Smiley said around 4 p.m. that the suspected shooter had been arrested, though she declined to provide details about the location of the arrest, the suspect's age or address. She said he was being interviewed and additional information would be released later.
Duncan, the emergency management spokeswoman, said he was arrested near Bardstown Road and Hurstbourne Parkway, about a mile-and-a-half from the school.
If he is a juvenile, his name and progress through the juvenile court system will remain secret unless a judge authorizes prosecutors to try him as an adult in Circuit Court.
Meanwhile, Fern Creek High Principal Nathan Meyer praised teachers for following the school's safety plan procedures "exactly as we have drilled and students and teachers behaved admirably under the circumstances."
"It is a frightening scenario for any school or parent to have a situation like this to occur during the school day," according to an email to parents sent at 2:30 p.m. "All students and teachers remained safely in their classrooms until the building was thoroughly searched and secured by local law enforcement."
Jackey said the district plans to review its security procedures in the wake of the shooting. The school did not have metal detectors, which are present only in some alternative schools.
The shooting victim was reunited with his family. He had surgery Tuesday afternoon, though the exact extent of the injuries wasn't clear.
Still, the event left the community stunned.
"This is every parent's nightmare," said Jefferson County school board member Chris Brady.
Mayor Greg Fischer issued a statement, saying: "My thoughts first are with the injured student, who I hope will recover quickly, and his family. My thoughts are also with the entire Fern Creek community which has been impacted by this senseless act."
Nearby, Fern Creek Elementary had also been locked down because of the shooting. At St. Gabriel the Archangel Elementary School, children were brought inside from recess and activities upon hearing of the shooting, said Cecelia Price, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Louisville.
Jon Akers, director of the Kentucky Center for School Safety, said Kentucky has had only two other school shootings since the early 1990s: In 1993, a student in Carter County shot and killed a student and a teacher, and in 1997 a student in Paducah shot and killed students participating in a prayer group.
Also Tuesday, a student was shot by a fellow student outside a North Carolina high school before classes began, and the shooting suspect then waited for police to arrive, according to The Associated Press.
While a post-incident review is necessary, he said "Jefferson County has a reputation for running safe schools" and noted that added security measure aren't foolproof. "If anybody wants to bring a gun to school, they can find a way to get it in," he said.
Meyer sent a memo to his staff Tuesday evening, thanking it for keeping things under control. The memo said the school will debrief with Louisville Metro Police Wednesday.
"No school is perfectly safe," he wrote. "No public venue can be. However, I firmly believe we are as secure at Fern Creek as anywhere in the district."
District Superintendent Donna Hargens met with the victim's family at University Hospital late Tuesday afternoon. Classes will be held as usual Wednesday, she said, and a crisis response team will be on hand to counsel students.
"There's no reason for us to believe that Fern Creek wouldn't be safe tomorrow," Hargens said.
Staff writer Matthew Glowicki contributed to this report. Reporter Claire Galofaro can be reached at (502) 582-7086. Follow her on Twitter at @clairegalofaro. Reporter Chris Kenning can be reached at (502) 582-4697. Follow him on Twitter at @ckenning_cj. Reporter Allison Ross can be reached at (502) 582-4241. Follow me on Twitter at @allisonSross.
Helping Kids During Crisis
• Try and keep routines as normal as possible. Kids gain security from the predictability of routine, including attending school.
• Limit exposure to television and the news.
• Be honest with kids and share with them as much information as they are developmentally able to handle.
• Listen to kids' fears and concerns.
• Reassure kids that the world is a good place to be, but that there are people who do bad things.
Source: American School Counselor Association