by Patrick H.Moore
Antoinette Tuff may have an unusual last name but when you hear her speak she seems as familiar as the woman next door, the sister you always confided in, or the friend you always looked forward to seeing. She is also America’s newest hero. Yesterday when the deranged 20-year-old gunman Michael Brandon Hill burst through the office doors of the Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy in Decatur, Georgia, heavily armed and ready to kill innocent children, the only one with the poise, moxie, faith and proximity to talk him out of it was Ms. Tuff. She spent an hour with Hill telling him she loved him, telling him that he was not alone in having problems, describing her own problems, telling him his life wasn’t over and he didn’t need to die, telling him to empty his pockets and drop his guns and lay down on the floor so that the police would see he was unarmed when they arrived so that they wouldn’t shoot him.
It took Ms. Tuff the better part of an hour to convince Hill that he didn’t need to die and he didn’t need to kill anyone. Somehow she managed. She chalks it all up to her faith in her God and that she used her faith to keep her “anchored” during this incredibly tense and volatile situation. I’m sure Ms. Tuff’s faith helped her immensely but I also believe that it was not just her faith that pulled her through, pulled Hill through, and saved the K thru 5 students at McNair Academy from becoming yet another set of tragic statistics. This woman is a genuine hero and I — like millions of other Americans — I have the greatest respect for her. But rather than have me ramble on about her, let’s just listen to her interview on WSBTV2.
Click here to read our earlier post on the McNair Academy Shooter Crisis:
Shots Fired from Inside Georgia Elementary School: Shooter Talked into Surrendering