Sheriff says active shooter rumors untrue
News December 10, 2020
ELLIJAY, Ga. – Despite spreading rumors on social media, Gilmer County’s Sheriff’s Office has released a statement “from the desk of the Sheriff” saying that there was not and is not an active shooter in a Gilmer School.
The lockdown has been lifted on both the Larry Walker Education Center and Gilmer High School at this time. The official statement said, “On December 10, 2020, Sheriff’s Office personnel responded to a lockdown event at the Larry Walker Center at approximately 9:30 a.m.”
The Sheriff stated, “Deputies responded to assist School Resource Officers who were already on scene. Following a thorough investigation into the noise, which included a search of the school properties nearby and including the Larry Walker Center, the source of the noise was determined not to have been a gunshot. A school administrator reviewed video footage from the location where the noise was reported, and in doing so, he saw that a piece of furniture had been moved by maintenance personnel causing it to strike a wall adjacent to the office where the noise was heard. The staff in that office mistook it for a gunshot. The noise was re-enacted for the staff who confirmed the noise was what they had previously heard.”
The Sheriff’s Office asserted that, despite the speculations made on social media, nobody has been arrested and nobody was injured during this event as there was no gunshot and no shooter.
According to Superintendent Dr. Shanna Downs, there has been no threats on the schools recently that she is aware of.
Gilmer has dealt with threats in the past, but no officials are reporting any indications of such an occurrence today.
Despite this, rumors and allegations are continuing across social media along with speculations of the noise’s source. FYN’s current understanding is that the only threat the school system has dealt with recently is a self-harm threat isolated to a specific student in a situation completely unrelated to today’s events.
As authorities continue to update with new details, FYN will continue to post new articles with such information.
1 Comment
Lmao.
Only the finer ellijay residents would immediately mistake moving a single piece of furniture for a gunshot. I guess some would say it is good to be on guard.. but at the same time we can’t have paranoid staff thinking a gun is being fired everytime something is moved. Students wouldn’t be able to learn with all the lockdowns! Looks like the staff has remained the same.. many, many years ago the school was locked down because a student [unidentified] drew a picture of bomberman (a popular video game back in the day) in the bathroom stall in apparent excitement for the new game that released the day before. This completely non violent video game character [the games are rated E] which looked like a bomb with a face, was taken as a threat by a woman who I believe got fired shortly thereafter. She was a counselor. If memory serves, Miss Callahan. I remember her vividly. A sweet woman, but very paranoid. I remember when the new red dawn movie came out, she preached for weeks about how it was going to happen here in gillmer County and various other parts of North Georgia and the movie was meant to condition and prepare us for that. I hope she is well.