The moments immediately after a Douglas County school shooting sped by quickly.
Law enforcement rushed to the scene early Thursday and within hours provided the public with a rough sketch explaining why Lithia Springs High School had closed so suddenly. A veteran teacher was wounded after shooting himself with a handgun in his classroom office around 7:15 a.m.
As the hours ticked by and Thursday morning turned to Friday evening, new information from officials slowed to a crawl.
Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and Douglas County School System officials stopped returning calls and emails.
The silence extended to all pertinent details, typically released by law enforcement soon after a shooting.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office declined to release the shooter’s name, if he fired the weapon on purpose or accident, or other specifics about what Sgt. Jesse Hambrick has described as a criminal investigation.
Hambrick said Friday morning he hoped to issue a news release by noon with the man’s identity, where on his body he shot himself, and other information. Noon came and went.
Sheriff Tim Pounds, Douglas County Superintendent Trent North, and the school district’s community relations representatives Karen Stroud and Nell Boggs, did not return requests for more information.
Only Douglas County District Attorney Brian Fortner answered the phone — twice.
He said his office had not been briefed officially by the sheriff’s office on its investigation as of 4 p.m. Friday.
He expected to meet with the sheriff’s office “very soon” to review information and make decision about possible charges.
The ongoing effort is aimed at “finding out the facts” and making sure counselors were available to meet with students, he said.
“I think honestly the focus from everybody here in the county has been taking care of our kids and our students first. And we know the situation, and we know there’s no threat,” he said.
Fortner said the initial shooting report prompted an all-hands-on-deck response.
“You just don’t hear about this very often,” he said. “Anything to do with a shooting at the school, and instantly it’s panic mode.”
The teacher was in stable condition Thursday after he was taken to an undisclosed hospital.
Hambrick said Friday morning he did not know the teacher’s current medical condition.
School safety expert Ken Trump said Thursday it’s key for officials to “get out quickly and transparently” in such cases. The president of the Ohio-based consulting firm National School Safety and Security Services said it’s important to “be very transparent with their parents and staff and students” because of the way rumors fly in social media.
Officials said students did not see the shooting. School starts about 8:40 a.m. Students were ushered to the gym to wait for returning buses or for their parents to pick them up.
The school district does not let teachers have weapons in its schools. Lithia Springs does not have metal detectors.
After shooting himself, the teacher made his way from his office to another area of the school, where a school employee came to his aid. Another colleague called 911, Hambrick said Thursday.
Lithia Springs enrolls about 1,500 students. Classes resumed Friday with counselors available to meet with students and teachers.
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