Law Enforcement And A Parent Reflect On Wednesday’s Shooting At Eupora High School

WEBSTER COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – The shooting investigation has been turned over to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.

However, when the active shooter situation was unfolding, the first call came into the Webster County Sheriff’s Department.

MBI is spearheading the case, but it involves several agencies from the local level, all the way up to the federal level.

“Pure fear at the time. I mean, just a gut reaction. It was awful,” says Janae Pittman.

Pittman was one of the first ones to hear about shots fired at Eupora High School on Wednesday afternoon.

She’s not only the Webster County Jail Administrator, but also a mom to a Eupora High School senior, who was at softball practice on the school field.

“She said, ‘what’s going on, mamma?’ And after I made the first initial calls, I called the coach and told him to get them, you know, get them up and we were just kind of, we didn’t exactly know what was going on in such a short period of time. We were still gathering information.”

This is the path the alleged shooter took on his dirt bike Wednesday afternoon, to gain access to Eupora High School.

Webster County Chief Deputy Jeff Mann says within one to two minutes, about five officers were on scene.

“We were running around trying to find the suspect and things of that nature and by the time I get back, Mississippi Highway Patrol had arrived and I mean, it’s just great to see a sea of blue lights when you turn the corner and know that all of these agencies are coming.”

Mann says students were funneled to the opposite side of the school as the situation was unfolding.

During these scenarios, law enforcement have to keep everybody away from the scene, even parents.

However, Mann was an exception, although his daughter was taking cover inside the school, he had a job to do.

“Emotions run wild, you know with myself and everybody else when something like this happens, so you’ve just got to be able to direct them in a calm manner and let them know everybody is safe and how to handle it and where to go and so we make sure all of the kids get home to their parents and we don’t leave one behind somewhere when everything gets crazy.’

Both of these parents and sheriff’s department employees say the school and law enforcement did what they were trained to do and handled it the right way.

Pittman says she thanks God the situation turned out like it did.

“As a community, we see it on TV so much now and it’s become such a norm, until it hits home, you don’t realize it. It makes you have another respect for the parents that have went through this and the schools that have went through this.”

Eupora High School Principal Laci Knight told WCBI, all of the buildings on the school campus were put on lock-down within one minute.