Deputy And Teacher Praised For Talking Down Alabama Gunman At School

By Mark Memmott / NPR

Published February 13, 2013 at 8:34 AM PST

This story was published more than 11 years ago.

WBRC-TV reporting from the scene at Chelsea (Ala.) Middle School, where a gunman briefly held some students.

As the nation watched anxiously to see how the manhunt in California for accused cop-killer Christopher Jordan Dorner would turn out, a harrowing situation at an Alabama middle school thankfully ended peacefully.

AL.com reports that a man entered the school in Chelsea, Ala., Tuesday afternoon and "held several students at gunpoint."

But the father of one young girl who was held captive says the situation did not end tragically because a physical education teacher "jumped in between the gunman and the students and said, '911 locker room!' " on her radio to alert school officials. And then, a sheriff's deputy who was on duty at the school negotiated with the gunman and got him to lay down his weapon and release the students.

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According to WBRC-TV, "the [adult, unidentified] suspect is a former Chelsea Middle School student and a former part time summer help employee, according to the sheriff's department."