RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — Students and their parents described the hectic moments before and after Riviera Beach police said a man was shot by an officer at Suncoast Community High School on Monday morning.
Police said an unauthorized man attempted to enter the premises on foot. When approached by an officer, the individual became "combative" and made physical contact with the officer, according to police.
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In response, the police said the officer discharged their weapon, resulting in the individual being shot twice, prompting a lockdown at Suncoast High School and surrounding schools.
"On the school grounds," Lana Zavgorodneva, a parent, exclaimed. "I mean with the kids!”
Forensic trucks and crime scene tap canvassed the high school Monday morning after parent Brian McMahon told WPTV he saw what looked like a struggle break out between a man and the officer, who he said was a woman, in the parking lot of the school's entrance on Avenue U at about 7:20 a.m.
"I did," McMahon said. "I heard a little bit of wrestling and a loud noise and someone yell. Then I heard a shot. It was loud, I saw the officer had her gun out, but I thought it was a Taser and then I realized after I saw the blood that she had shot him."
That was about 20 seconds after he said he dropped off his twin freshmen students, Abigail and Keegan, just yards away.
"The first thing I immediately thought about was these guys," McMahon, pointing to his children, said.
"I was out in the courtyard and I just see people running, and immediately I hear the code yellow signal," Abigail McMahon said.
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Zavgorodneva told Hussey her freshman daughter and her friends described a similar struggle.
"Some guy just attacked the police officer, trying to kind of, strangle her and grabbed for her gun," Zavgorodneva said.
Ninth-grade student Miriadzel Cayard said she was also in the courtyard when the incident happened.
"I just see people running, and because I had my headphones in, I didn't hear the announcement," Cayard said. "I was scared."
Cayard said she ran and hid in the library, while the McMahon twins hunkered down in a classroom.
"They told us to go to the back of the classroom and hide under the desks," Abigail McMahon said.
"I didn't know what was going on. I just heard yelling and stuff," her brother Keegan said.
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Abigail and Keenan said they were thankful they could communicate with their father, as Cayard recalled the frantic cluster of cars that came to pick up students soon after.
Her mother, Dawn Pugh, was one of the parents who came as soon as they could.
"When you hear your kids are in this situation and you're supposed to protect them, it brings up a level of worry that I never knew I had," Pugh said.
"Yeah, it's a nightmare man," Travis Wheeler, the parent of a Suncoast junior, added. "I was like, 'Oh my God,' I dropped everything I was doing."
When the "all clear" was issued, and the adrenaline faded for parents, all said they were thankful the situation wasn't worse.
"It does put things into perspective that, at any time and at any point, you want to appreciate what you have," Brian McMahon said.
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Students told WPTV they felt safer knowing the incident wasn't ever targeted at them but, according to police, appeared to be an isolated incident involving the officer.
The officer and the individual were taken to the hospital for treatment. The officer was treated and released, while the individual remains in stable condition.