Kids OK After AK-47 Fired at School

Suspect in custody near Atlanta
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 20, 2013 12:57 PM CDT
Updated Aug 20, 2013 4:12 PM CDT
Alleged Shooter in Custody at Ga. Elementary School
Parents cheer as buses arrive with students after the shooting scare.   (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Welcome news after reports of shots fired today at a Georgia elementary school: “Shooter apprehended; all kids safe and accounted for,” the interim superintendent tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Police say a 20-year-old suspect is in custody. "He started to fire from inside the school at our officers," said DeKalb County Police Chief William O'Brien, per CNN. He said the gunman, who had an AK-47 and other weapons, barricaded himself in the school's front office before surrendering. He apparently got into the building by following someone who had authorization, reports AP.

Before the arrest, a female worker in the office had called WSB-TV to report the incident and said the gunman himself had ordered her to do so. The gunman left the office briefly when police arrived, apparently to go outside and fire at officers, then returned to the office before eventually surrendering. Police have offered no clues as to a possible motive. TV footage showed students fleeing the Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy in DeKalb County, while others later evacuated the building in an orderly fashion. They all were being reunited with their parents at a local shopping plaza. (More school shooting stories.)

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