Hero

School Clerk Convinced Gunman to Surrender

Was armed with AK-47.

We have elementary-school clerk Antoinette Tuff to thank for the fact that Atlanta didn’t turn into another Newtown yesterday. Tuff says she convinced Michael Brandon Hill, a 20-year-old man who came to a school armed with an assault rifle and other weapons—to put down his guns and surrender. “[I saw] a young man ready to kill anybody that he could and take any lives he wanted to,” Tuff told ABC. As Hill went between the office and the school entrance to shoot at police, Tuff started talking to him, eventually convincing him to put down his guns and surrender. “I told him, ‘OK, we all have situations in our lives. I went through a tragedy myself,’” Tuff said. “It was going to be OK. If I could recover, he could too.” No students were harmed in the standoff and Hill was arrested.