Gunman Who Entered DeKalb School Sentenced to Prison

A mentally ill gunman who exchanged gunfire with police last year after he entered Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy in DeKalb County carrying an assault rifle was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday.

Armed with an AK-47, other weapons, and possibly explosives, Michael Brandon Hill, then 20, exchanged gunfire with police officers on Aug. 20, 2013, Patch previously reported. He entered a front office at the elementary school, located at 2162 Second Ave. in unincorporated south DeKalb County. Once inside, Hill demanded a receptionist contact WSB TV so the news outlet could send a crew to come document and “start filming as police die.”

At his sentencing Tuesday, Hill’s attorney said the armed intrusion was a failed attempt at suicide spurred by a life-long struggle with mental illness, bouts of homelessness and an inability to regularly obtain the medicines he needs.

“He knew because there were children the police would come there and they would fire at him and he would die,” attorney Annie Deets told Superior Court Judge Mark Anthony Scott, reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

After Hill shot at arriving officers a few times, he barricaded himself in an office with bookkeeper Antoinette Tuff and a couple other school staffers. Tuff said that in watching Hill load up with ammunition, she saw a man “ready to kill anybody that he could and take any lives he wanted to.”

Although Tuff was “terrified,” she kept her “faith in God” and calmed the assailant with encouraging stories of overcoming obstacles in her own life. She eventually talked Hill into putting his weapons on the desk, emptying his backpack and pockets, and then laying on the floor so officers could make a peaceful arrest.

No one was injured or killed in the incident.

WSB TV reported that when being questioned by police officers, the suspect said, “I am sorry. I am off my meds.”
Hill, whom neighbors told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was a “quiet and polite” individual who kept to himself near the home he lived at off Decatur’s East Lilac Street, within walking distance of the school.

After his release from prison, Hill will be on probation for 20 years, the newspaper reports.

Patch’s Past Coverage:

• Shots Fired, Gunman Apprehended at DeKalb Elementary School
• In the wake of the Atlanta school shooting, your children are bound to have questions and concerns
• McNair Bookkeeper Talked Gunman Into Surrendering

»Gunman Michael Brandon Hill was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday for bringing an AK47 into a DeKalb County school last year. Credit: Screenshot from WSB TV