Bus driver scares shooters away from school

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Bus driver scares shooters away from school

fr schoolshooters If Alice Bradley hadn’t been warming up her school bus at 5 a.m. last Thursday before heading out on her daily route, an incident involving armed suspects at South Macon Elementary School could have possibly ended in tragedy.

Based on interviews with the suspects, Macon County Sheriff Robbie Holland said the pair had intentions of shooting students and staff at the school “if it was God’s will.”

“The reality of what could have happened is very frightening to all of us,” Holland said during a Friday press conference. “We’re very blessed because this could have been a very different outcome.”

After cranking up her bus as usual, Bradley went back to her car for a minute. She was getting back out of her car when she saw the two heavily armed suspects charging toward her. Bradley said she jumped back into her car and got down in the floorboard. When she looked back up, she saw the suspects heading back toward her school bus, which was still running.

Holland said Bradley was determined not to let the suspects get on her bus so she drove toward them in her car like she was going to run them over.

“I thought about the kids,” she said when asked what possessed her to pursue the suspects in her car. “I thought ‘I got little kids coming to school and 99 percent of them are my kids’ — he had a gun and he had a gun for a reason.”

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It worked — she was able to chase the suspects in the opposite direction of the bus and school building.

“I’m proud of her and the actions she took — it changed the events that occurred from that point forward,” Holland said.

Bradley didn’t have a cell phone, but after she ran the suspects far enough away from the bus, she jumped back on the bus and alerted the main bus garage of what was happening on her radio. Someone at the garage then made the 911 call.

Call it adrenaline or shock, but after all was said and done, Bradley got back on her bus and finished her routes for the day. It wasn’t until she got home that night that the gravity of the situation hit her.

“It’s not every day someone points a gun at you,” she said. “To tell you the truth I haven’t been sleeping that well.”

But it hasn’t stopped her from doing what she’s been doing for about 28 years. She was right back at the scene of the crime the next morning to get her bus warmed up for the students.

While a scary situation like that seems to go by in slow motion, she said the sheriff’s deputies had the suspects arrested in no time when they arrived on campus.

A confrontation between the suspects and deputies ensued around 5:30 a.m. before the suspects were taken into custody. Adam Conley, 38, and Kathryn Jetter, 29, both of Franklin, were arrested around 5:40 a.m.

Holland said Conley refused to follow the demands of the first deputy on scene and aimed one of his guns at her. The deputy tased Conley three times before he could be subdued. Jetter was also tased as she tried to reach for the pistol Conley dropped on the ground nearby.

“There were no injuries during either of these incidents today. Inmates must comply with the orders of the staff and it will never be acceptable behavior for them to attempt to injure any of my officers ... successful attempt to injure or not, there will be legal consequences to follow,” Holland said in a press release.

Both suspects were arrested and transported to the Macon County Detention Center. Both Jetter and Conley, who according Holland are well known by law enforcement officers, face numerous charges.

Holland said he declared the school a crime scene about 5:50 a.m. while a search was done on campus and even though no one was in the building yet, a lockdown was initiated.

Five pistols, several of which were fully loaded, were found. The suspects had four on them and another was found on Bradley’s school bus, which means the suspects were in the bus sometime before Bradley showed up that morning. Holland is unsure what the suspects’ intentions were on the bus. He did say that it was obvious to deputies that the suspects were under the influence of some kind of substance.

Holland said one gunshot was heard prior to the incident with Bradley and deputies discovered a dead cat that had been shot. The animal frequented the school and was well known by students for many years. When the suspects were asked why they killed the cat, Holland said one of them responded by saying the cat was “defective.”

During the lockdown, students and faculty were sent to Prentiss Church near the school. Parents couldn’t drop children off during that time and couldn’t pick them up if they were already there.

While Holland said his department received some push back from upset parents during that process, he said the sheriff’s office did what it had to do to keep everyone safe.

“We were concerned about how parents felt … but our number one priority was the safety of those children,” he said.

Holland determined the school to be safe at 8 a.m. but Superintendent Chris Baldwin made the decision to close the school for the day since so many children had already returned home. Baldwin said Macon County Schools had never had something of this magnitude occur as far as he could remember.

In the last few years, Macon County Schools has made several safety improvements, including adding student resource officers at all schools and installing video surveillance at front doors so people have to be buzzed in by a staff member inside.

“I think that we were as prepared as we could be — we’ve prepared for active shooters and had drills — but we never had any preparations for what might happen two and a half hours before school starts,” he said. “That’s out of the ordinary and something that’s not discussed.”

Baldwin said he is looking into more safety measures, but isn’t ready to make them public yet. Right now he is just thankful no teachers or students were injured.

Holland said his department searched Conley and Jetter’s shared residence the evening of June 4, which is close to the school property. Deputies found more weapons and ammunition at the home. Holland said he would not be giving any more statements about the incident after the press conference as to not jeopardize the open investigation.

Jetter and Conley remain in custody at Macon County Detention Center. Jetter is being held on a $1 million bond while Conley’s bond was set at $3 million.