Madison school officer: I was prepared for shootout
HAMILTON — Students were on the floor.
That's all Kent Hall remembers. Everything else is a blur.
It was Monday, Feb. 29. Hall, a school resource officer at the Madison Local School District, had left the cafeteria to go to his office.
Shortly after he left, a 14-year-old student pulled a gun from his lunchbox and started shooting.
The sound – pop, pop, pop – was unmistakable. Hall drew his gun and ran back down the hallway.
Two students were shot. Two others were injured in the incident, but not from gunfire.
Hall didn't know this at the time. Normal procedure in a lockdown, he said, is to hide if it is impossible to safely get away. Hall didn't know if the students on the floor were hiding or if the shooter was still in the cafeteria.
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The retired Butler County Sheriff's Deputy prepared for a shootout.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted 14-year-old James Austin Hancock sprinting through the parking lot away from the school. School staff and administrators ran toward the students. Hall ran to his car and drove to a wooded field near the school property.
He had already requested backup and, by this time, other officers surrounded Austin in the field. The student surrendered with his hands up.
Austin is charged with several felonies, including two counts of attempted murder, which he denied through his attorney. He is next scheduled to appear in juvenile court in April. It is still possible he could be tried as an adult.
Hall said he'd never spoke to Austin before and had no idea what was going through his head.
The shooting led officials to cancel school the next day. When students returned on Wednesday, Hall was there.
A lifelong resident of Madison Township and 1984 graduate of Madison High School, Hall never thought about quitting. This job is perfect for him, he said.
But he thinks about what could have happened every day.
What if the shooter didn't flee?
What if a bullet landed differently?
Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones has spoken of his admiration for Hall, calling him a true leader on Twitter. Superintendent Curtis Philpot called him a hero.
But Hall deflected praise on Wednesday, speaking to a group of reporters at the sheriff's office in Hamilton. It was a little more than a week after the shooting.
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The true heroes, Hall said, were the school administrators and medical personnel who responded to the school.
His wife, an emergency medical technician who cared for the injured students, was one.
"I'm happy with how the incident panned out," said Hall. "We had a school shooting where no one died."