photo courtesy of News 12 Now
Police on Thursday fatally shot a man trying to forcefully enter an elementary school in Gadsen, Alabama.
The potential intruder went to several locked doors trying to get into Walnut Park Elementary School before police shot him dead, according to Gadsen City Schools Superintendent Tony Reddick.
And Joe Biden is opposed to “hardening schools” in the aftermath of the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Republicans have pitched measures to beef up security at schools such as single point of entry, fencing, metal detectors and armed security.
Joe Biden and the Democrats are pushing back on the security proposals because their goal is to ban guns.
Responding police officers engaged the intruder before shooting him dead.
No children were harmed.
The identity of the intruder has not been released at the time of this publication.
AP reported:
A person who was trying to enter an Alabama elementary school where a summer program was being held was shot to death by a police officer Thursday morning, authorities said.
Etowah County Sheriff Jonathon Horton told The Gadsden Times that a police officer from nearby Rainbow City was working as a school resource officer and encountered the person, got involved in an altercation and called for backup, Horton said. At least one other officer responded and the person was shot to death.
No students were hurt, sheriff’s officials said. “All kids are out” of the building, Reddick said, and most didn’t even realize something had happened.
“We don’t know the potential of what could have happened had those two officers not responded the way they did, so we very much commend them for that,” Reddick said.
Authorities didn’t immediately release the identity of the person who was killed or any details about the altercation, including whether the person who died was armed or why they might have been trying to get into the school.