Students at an Oklahoma high school crowned their principal prom king after he charged, disarmed and was shot by an armed intruder at their campus.
Kirk Moore, the Pauls Valley high school principal, received the honor on Friday night after his students voted to honor him for having defended them.
“Ladies and gentlemen, our king,” an announcer declared at the Pauls Valley high school prom.
Video of the scene showed students cheering and celebrating as Moore received the honor, with a couple high-fiving him in congratulations. One clip showed him walking in to sound of the Nickelback song Hero, the hit theme of the 2002 film Spider-Man.
Right after someone put a crown on Moore’s head, part of the song’s chorus blared on the video: “And they say that a hero can save us / I’m not going to stand here and wait.”
The jubilant moment punctuated a sequence of events that began with the attack in which Moore intervened at about 2.30pm on 7 April at Moore’s school about 60 miles (96.6km) south of Oklahoma City, a sworn police document states.
According to investigators, the alleged attacker, Victor Lee Hawkins, had two semi-automatic handguns and fired several shots before he was disarmed by Moore and another school staff member who arrived to help. School surveillance video captured the intrusion.
Hawkins “entered the school, pointed his pistol, and yelled for everyone to get on the ground”, special agent Meric Mussett of the Oklahoma state bureau of investigation wrote in the sworn police statement.
The statement added that the alleged shooter pointed the gun at a female student in the lobby and pulled the trigger, but the weapon malfunctioned.
“Hawkins then stepped out from behind the vending machine and pointed his gun at a male student in the foyer,” Mussett’s statement said. “Principal Moore then came out of his office and charged at Hawkins.”
Moore was shot in the leg as he wrestled the attacker, a 20-year-old described in court documents as being obsessed with the 1999 shooting at Colorado’s Columbine high school in which 12 students and one teacher were killed.
Authorities praised Moore’s actions, saying he prevented a tragedy and possible mass shooting at his school.
“It doesn’t surprise me the actions that he took, but it is amazing, the actions that he took,” Don May, Pauls Valley’s police department chief, told NBC News. “There’s not a doubt in my mind that he saved kids’ lives.”
Investigators said the alleged attacker was a former Pauls Valley high school student.
Moore said in a statement reported by NBC that he was grateful for “an outpouring of love and support” after the attack that he thwarted.
“Like so many educators around the country, we prepare for these events through training and careful assessment of the threats,” Moore said. “I am grateful that my instincts and training, as well as God’s hand, were available to me.”
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