Decatur, Georgia, School Bookkeeper Antoinette Tuff is the personification of "courage under fire," only she didn't have to shoot back when an armed gunman ran into the school where she worked last week. Instead, this heroic lady used a combination of psychology, compassion and gentle persuasion to convince a mentally ill young man armed with 500 rounds of ammo to lay down his weapons and give himself up. Not a single child or teacher was injured. If only every scenario could end this way ~ Newtown ~ the Zimmerman Case. People like Anoinette Tuff are all too rare in this world! We need leaders like this to refute the NRA and show us a better approach.
Sign the MoveOn.Org Petition: Antoinette Tuff for The Presidential Medal of Freedom
Excerpts from the 911 Tapes, via NBC News
Tuff even mustered up the courage to talk Hill into surrendering — a one-on-one negotiation captured on the tape.
"Don't feel bad, baby," she can be heard telling the young man. "My husband just left me after 33 years. ... I've got a son that's multiple disabled."
Later, she can be heard reassuring him that "it's all going to be well."
After about 20 minutes, she won him over.
Tuff: "OK, he said that they can come in now. He needs to go to the hospital."
Operator: "OK, and he doesn't have any weapons on him or anything like that?"
Tuff: "He's laying on the floor. He's got everything out of his pockets. There isn't anything. The only thing he has is his belt. Everything is out of his pockets. Everything is sitting here on the counter, so all we need to do is they can just come in, and I'll buzz them in."
Only after the ordeal was over did Tuff reveal just how scared she'd been the whole time:
"I'm going to tell you something baby — I've never been so scared in all the days in my life," she told the unidentified operator. Then, she started crying and exclaimed, "Oh, Jesus! Oh, God!"
To which the operator told the courageous bookkeeper: "You did great. Hold on. Hold on"
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