Michael Brandon Hill Identified as Georgia School Gunman

Michael Brandon Hill Identified as Georgia School Gunman
Dekalb County Police SWAT officers run toward Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy after reports of a gunman entered the school, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2013, in Decatur, Ga. A suspect was in custody after reports of gunfire at an Atlanta-area elementary school Tuesday, the school chief said, with television footage showing young students running out the school being escorted by teachers and police. Michael Thurmond told The Associated Press he had no reports of injuries and that all students and teachers are accounted for and safe. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Zachary Stieber
8/20/2013
Updated:
8/21/2013

The gunman who fired shots in an Atlanta-area school on Tuesday has been identified as Michael Brandon Hill.

The situation happened earlier in the day but ended in no injuries and Hill being arrested. 

Investigators said Hill will be be charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, terrorist threats and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, according to WSB-TV

Hill, 20, is said to have slipped into the Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy near Decatur by going in directly behind someone who had access to the building, but he never got past the front office, where he held two employees captive for a time.

Hill fired at least a half-dozen shots from the rifle from inside McNair at officers who were swarming the campus outside, said DeKalb County Police Chief Cedric Alexander.

School clerk Antoinette Tuff in an interview on ABC’s “World News with Diane Sawyer” said she worked to convince the gunman to put down his weapons and ammunition.

“He told me he was sorry for what he was doing. He was willing to die,” Tuff told ABC.

She told him her life story, about how her marriage fell apart after 33 years and the “roller coaster” of opening her own business.

“I told him, ‘OK, we all have situations in our lives,” she said. “It was going to be OK. If I could recover, he could, too.”

Then Tuff said she asked the suspect to put his weapons down, empty his pockets and backpack on the floor.

“I told the police he was giving himself up. I just talked him through it,” she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.