School shooting suspect Michael Brandon Hill remains an enigma to all except possibly the detectives who were interviewing him about why he allegedly entered a DeKalb County, Ga., school armed with a gun.
There is little in public record about Hill. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter dispatched to a house that was searched by law officers investigating the shooting found descriptions of an Everyman, who neighbors described as quiet and polite.
Late Tuesday night, police were still searching the house, which glowed from interior lights throughout and was wrapped in yellow crime scene tape. The house, which sits in a neighborhood of bungalows — some neat, some boarded up and surrounded by weeds — is in walking distance of the Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy, the scene of the crime.
Neighbors described the 20-year-old Hill as a short, stocky teenager who kept to himself and who watched over three children at the house in the wooded neighborhood off East Lilac Street in Decatur.
Hill, along with five other residents, had moved into the house about a year ago. They sometimes threw small get-togethers but rarely made much noise or trouble, said neighbors — who expressed shock that someone so unassuming could allegedly commit such a horrific act.
“I’m surprised,” said Francis Hall, who lives across the street and would occasionally exchange waves with Hill as he took out the trash. “He’s just an average guy.”
Another neighbor who didn’t want to be identified said he suspected Hill was some sort of nanny. He said Hill rarely left the house and was often seen taking care of three children who apparently lived there.
The children would play outside in the pool while Hill looked on. When neighbors requested he pick up trash left by children living at the house, he politely did so, the neighbor said.
To that neighbor and others, Hill didn’t seem disturbed; they saw him as pretty friendly.
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