OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — A Pauls Valley High School principal is recovering after police say he confronted and stopped an armed former student inside the school Tuesday afternoon, taking a bullet while protecting students from what officials say could have been a far worse tragedy.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) says the suspect is 20-year-old Victor Hawkins, a former Pauls Valley High School student.
Hawkins is in the Garvin County Jail, charged with two counts of pointing a firearm, one count of shooting with intent to kill and two counts of unlawful carry.
What happened Tuesday is not something people in the small town of Pauls Valley even thought was possible.
“Certainly don’t expect these type of situations to happen in your town,” Pauls Valley Police Chief Don May said.
“This is a an educators worst nightmare,” State Superintendent Lindel Fields said.
“It’s just—it’s something we never even put in our head would ever come to our school that come to our school,” student Cody McLaughlin said.
“This is small town, small school,” student William Harris said. “Not a lot of things happen.”
“No one even jokes about stuff like this because we know just how serious it is,” McLaughlin said.
But things quickly became all too real in flash Tuesday afternoon.
“Sixth hour ended and we were going to walk to our cars to get some things of our cars,” McLaughlin said. “And we heard a gunshot go off.”
“It was kind of like you try not to believe it for a second,” Harris said. “Not here. Not Pauls Valley.”
“You’re kind of flustered,” McLaughlin said. “You don’t know exactly what to do, but you’re trying to text everybody, tell everybody you’re okay. You’re trying to text your friends to make sure they’re okay. You know, it’s just there’s a lot of things, you know.”
“We were just praying that everybody’s okay,” Harris said.
Investigators say Hawkins walked into the front doors of Pauls Valley High School armed with a gun, right next to Principal Kirk Moore’s office.
“Once the principal saw that the subject had a firearm, he stepped in to do what he could,” OSBI spokesperson Hunter McKee said.
“And [Moore] jumped on the jumped on the on the shooter,” McLaughlin said. “And in the process of that, he got shot in the leg.”
Moore, a 35-year educator, was flown to an Oklahoma City hospital, where officials say he is expected to recover.
“We actually like him a lot,” McLaughlin said.
“He’s a good guy,” Harris said. “He helps a lot. He is very face to face with everything. He doesn’t just kind of tell you what to do, he helps you do everything, even if it’s not school related.”
“He was a Pauls Valley guy all his life,” Pauls Valley Public Schools Superintendent Brett Knight said. “You won’t meet to bigger Panther.”
Authorities say Moore was the only person injured in the shooting Tuesday.
“I can’t overemphasize the actions of school staff, the people that don’t have firearms for protection, stepping in and protecting their kids,” May said. “It was amazing for me to see that today.”
“If it wasn’t for the actions of the principal and the staff, I don’t know what other outcome we had,” Garvin County Sheriff Jim Mullett said.
Students and school leaders say Moore’s actions likely prevented something much worse.
“I mean, he’s a hero,” Harris said.
“I know the word gets where it gets thrown around quite a bit but he is a hero,” Knight said.
“I just want to say thank you. God bless him,” Fields said.
“He saved a lot of people today. He’s a good man,” McLaughlin said.
Pauls Valley Public Schools says classes will be canceled at least through Wednesday.
The district says it will bring in counselors to talk with anyone who may need it after what happened.
