14 DAY TRIAL // Police have apprehended a man opening fire in an elementary school in Georgia, in the Atlanta area.
According to ABC News, officials have identified the gunman as 20-year-old Michael Brandon Hill of Atlanta.
Bookkeeper Antoinette Tuff at Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy in Decatur described seeing the shooter when he came in.
Tuff detailed that he was armed and he told her that he was not kidding around.
"[I saw] a young man ready to kill anybody that he could and take any lives he wanted to," Tuff says.
When police came to the scene, he opened fire. He had also shot one round inside the school beforehand.
He "went outside several times and shot at police officers," Tuff adds.
She negotiated his surrender for him as police swarmed the building. Nobody was injured after the shooter situation, but Hill was threatening to kill people around him, then take his own life.
"He told me he was sorry for what he was doing. He was willing to die.
"I told him, 'OK, we all have situations in our lives. I went through a tragedy myself.' It was going to be OK. If I could recover, he could too," she recalls.
She also told officers that he was giving himself up after convincing him to drop the gun. Hill had an AK-47 replica in his hand when he threatened Tuff. He also had other weapons on him, ammunition and newspaper clips in a backpack.
"I told the police he was giving himself up. I just talked him through it," Tuff says.
The children were evacuated and parents are happy that the outcome did not resemble that of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
Chief Cedric Alexander of the Dekalb Police mentions the gunman having a criminal record for assault and terroristic threats.
"Once we had him in custody, we secured the entire school," Alexander stated.