The Knoxville, Tennessee, Police Department has released the names of the four officers involved in Monday’s deadly shooting inside a local high school.
All four have been placed on administrative leave, and one officer — Adam Willson, who was shot in the leg by a bullet from an officer’s gun — is still hospitalized.
The other officers involved are Lt. Stanley Cash and Officers Jonathon Clabough and Brian Baldwin.
On Monday, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Anthony J. Thompson, 17, was shot and killed during an incident at Austin-East Magnet High School in Knoxville.
Police said Thompson opened fire on officers responding to a report of a possible gunman at the school. Police found the student in a bathroom, TBI Director David Rausch said. They ordered the student to come out, but he wouldn’t comply, and that’s when he reportedly opened fire, Rausch said. Police fired back.
Thompson died at the school. It isn’t yet clear why the student brought a gun to school or why he fired at officers.
Asked about the overwhelming police response to a call that came in just before afternoon dismissal, Knoxville Police Chief Eve Thomas said, “We have a student, a school incident. It’s our worst fear, an active shooter in a school.”
The shooting comes as more classrooms are reopening to students after months of remote learning during the coronavirus pandemic, which cut down the number of mass killings in the U.S. The nation has seen series of mass shootings in recent weeks, including eight people killed at three Atlanta-area spa businesses on March 16 and 10 people killed at a Colorado supermarket on March 22.
Knox County Schools restarted in-person learning in August, but Austin-East Magnet High School went back to virtual instruction briefly in February after the spate of shooting deaths of students.
Speaking outside a hospital, Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon told news station WATE-TV that she spoke with the wounded officer and he was conscious and in good spirits.
Kincannon, a former Knox County Schools board president, spoke at a February news conference about the gun violence that took the lives of three Austin-East students less than three weeks apart this year. Two of the victims were 15, and the other was 16.
“I know that school is a safe place,” Kincannon said at that time, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel. “It’s a place where people are learning. ... The issues with violence are happening in the community, and it’s affecting kids when they’re outside of the school. That’s why we are focusing our efforts to protect the innocent, protect the school, protect the children and students and staff.”
The Knoxville News Sentinel reported that the school was adding three school resource officers and stepping up patrols around dismissal time.
State Rep. Sam McKenzie, who represents the district and went to the school, said in a statement: “I am at a loss to describe my sadness as yet another horrific act of gun violence has happened in my community,” urging people to “reclaim the sanctity of our beloved neighborhood.”
“This is the fourth unnecessary shooting involving the Austin East community this year and we must make sure we take every step and make every effort to prevent these tragedies from continuing to occur,” McKenzie’s statement said.
Gov. Bill Lee mentioned the shooting at a Monday news conference but said he had little information.
“I just wanted to make reference to that and ask, for those who are watching, online or otherwise, to pray for that situation and for the families and the victims that might be affected by that in our state,” he said.
Last week, the Republican governor signed legislation that will make Tennessee the latest state to allow most adults 21 and older to carry handguns — openly or concealed — without first clearing a background check and training. Lee backed the legislation over objections from law enforcement groups, who argued that the state’s existing permit system provided an important safeguard for knowing who should or shouldn’t carry a gun.
When asked earlier this year whether recent mass shootings in Georgia, Colorado and others gave him any concern about timing, Lee said the increased penalties mean that “we in fact will be strengthening laws that would help prevent gun crimes in the future.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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