Memphis Police prevented a shooting at a Jewish school. According to city authorities, law enforcement officers shot down a man attempting to enter the Margolin Hebrew Academy-Feinstone Yeshiva of the South with a gun. When the man realized that he could not enter the educational institution due to its security measures, he began to shoot at the building, provoking the action of the officers present.
The incident occurred around 12:20 p.m. when school authorities were alerted to a suspicious maroon Dodge Ram pickup truck driving in the vicinity. When the van was stopped, the driver got out armed and fired at the school, and security forces responded accordingly.
According to reports, the man was taken to a nearby hospital, and his condition is critical. The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office and the Bartlett Police Department assisted in finding the suspect, a former student of the school. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is leading the investigation with the assistance of the FBI.
Margolin Hebrew Academy-Feinstone Yeshiva of the South is a pre-kindergarten through grade 12 school.
Cerelyn “CJ” Davis, chief of the Memphis Police Department, spoke out in a statement and applauded her officers' actions. “I am proud of the vigilant and quick response of MPD officers who mitigated a potential mass shooting situation today,” she wrote.
“Many thanks to our neighboring jurisdictions for also providing critical information to stop the suspect’s actions,” she added.
The near-shooting resonated in Washington DC and was condemned by Steve Cohen (R-TN), who has represented the state’s 9th Congressional District in the House of Representatives since 2007.
“We recently learned that the shooter at Margolin Hebrew Academy was Jewish and an alumnus of the school. I am pleased that the academy had effective security and that the police acted quickly to protect students,” he wrote in a statement.
