Atlanta Grateful After School Gunman Subdued Without Injury to Children

The gunman fired at least six shots, forcing the evacuation of 800 students

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Atlanta residents are breathing a collective sigh of relief the day after a man armed with an automatic rifle snuck into an suburban elementary school and opened fire.

The suspect, Michael Brandon Hill, 20, was in custody Tuesday and no one was hurt. Hill allegedly followed someone with access into the school and fired at least six shots, forcing the backdoor evacuation of 800 students and leading to a showdown with police.

The school’s bookkeeper is being hailed as a local hero for talking to the gunman and convincing him to surrender to police. Antoinette Tuff told ABC that she calmed Hill down by telling him about her own life, including a breakup after 33 years of marriage. Tuff said she told Hill to put down the weapon and then informed police that he would surrender.

“I told him, ‘OK, we all have situations in our lives,” she said. “It was going to be OK. If I could recover, he could, too.”

The gunman’s brother, Timothy Hill, told ABC news that Michael Hill had a “long history of medical disorders.”

“I had a feeling he was going to eventually, one day, do something stupid, but not of this magnitude,” Timothy Hill said.