Bryan Garcia heard what sounded like gunfire — boom, boom, boom, he said — coming from outside his math class at Apalachee High School. A lockdown alert flashed on a screen inside the room.
Following protocol, the students and teacher ran to the back of the class and huddled in the corner furthest from the door.
Bryan looked toward the door. It was open.
Almost immediately, Bryan said, a classmate ran across the room and slammed the door shut.
“He saved us,” Bryan said.
Another student, Nahomi Licona, described a similar scene in her math class. As students hustled to the back of the room, she said, one of them ran up to close the door. They heard gunshots, then footsteps, then lots of shouting, she said.
Nahomi, 15, a sophomore, said her family moved to the United States nine years ago from Guatemala. Walking beside Nahomi on Wednesday afternoon, her mother, Jackeline, said shootings in their native country tended to happen in the streets, not in schools. Nahomi said she recognized the sound of gunfire at once.
“It’s normal over there, but it’s still scary,” Nahomi said. She added: “I never expected to hear that in a school.”
Within a few minutes, Bryan said, school resource officers responded. Bryan said he heard a confrontation involving the shooter, whom the authorities identified as a 14-year-old student at the school. The officers were engaging the suspect, Bryan said, telling him to raise his hands and surrender.
Nahomi said she knew people were at least injured while she was evacuating the school. In a hallway, she said, she saw white powder used to absorb blood.
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
