Author of the article: Date of publication: June 10, 2022 • 3 hours ago • 2 minutes reading • 50 comments Officers gather outside Walnut Park Elementary School in Gadsden, Ala., After a fatal police shooting on Thursday, June 9, 2022. Photo by Jesse Jarrold-Grapes / The Gadsden Times via AP
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A man who tried to break into an Alabama elementary school has been shot and killed during a physical altercation with a school police officer as communities across the United States remain on alert for possible attacks after the Uvalde massacre in Texas.
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The man, identified as Robert Tyler White, 32, of Bunnlevel, North Carolina, was shot dead Thursday morning outside Walnut Park Elementary School in Gadsden, about 60 miles (96 km) northeast of Birmingham, locals said. media. About 34 elementary school children were inside the school watching a summer literacy camp as the incident unfolded, Ganchen School Superintendent Tony Redick told AL.com, a state-run news agency. “Our main concern was simply to make sure that someone who was not authorized to be in our building did not enter it and that our children were safe,” Redick told reporters. The incident happened just two weeks after a gunman entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas and killed 19 children and two teachers. The massacre has rekindled a national debate over U.S. gun laws and prompted school districts across the country to scrutinize their security protocols.
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In Gadsden on Thursday morning, police responded to the school after receiving a call from a resident who said a suspect was trying to open several doors in the building and tried to get into vehicles in the parking lot, Etowah County Sheriff Jonathon Horton told reporters. . The school’s resource officer confronted the suspect and a scuffle ensued between the two as White tried to take the officer’s gun. Other police officers responded to the incident and the man was shot and killed, Horton said. “The school’s resource officer did exactly what needed to be done, went straight to the threat, dealt with it and dealt with it,” he said. None of the officers were seriously injured, the sheriff said. It was not clear why the suspect was at school and whether he was armed. State police officials investigating the incident were not immediately available for comment. (Report by Brendan O’Brien; edited by Jonathan Oatis)
