(The Root) — Parents, students and online onlookers are thankful that a scary situation at an Atlanta-area elementary school didn't turn deadly, as these events often do.
All students are accounted for and a suspect is in custody after shots were fired at Ronald E. McNail Academy, a charter elementary school in Decatur, Ga. USA Today reports that the suspect is described as "a white male in his late 20s or early 30s, wearing black clothes and armed with an assault rifle."
It is reported that the suspect fired one shot, which police officers on the scene returned. The suspect was uninjured before being apprehended and taken in to be interrogated.
With high-profile cases like Columbine and Sandy Hook, many associate American school shootings — both assailants and victims — with white people. As such, many on Twitter were surprised to see a sea of brown faces — including parents clamoring for their children — on the scene. Regardless of race, everyone tweeted their concern, prayers and relief that things ended with everyone's child safe and sound.
#McNairShooting predominantly, if not entirely, black school and no injuries? Setup?
— LessTweetsMoreAction (@NicoleAD79) August 20, 2013
Wait, Don't tell Me: #McNairShooting suspect has mental illness. He was bullied. Dad went for cigs & neva came back? #WhiteShooterExcuses
— Black Canseco (@BlackCanseco) August 20, 2013
Read more at USA Today.
Tracy Clayton is a writer, humorist and blogger from Louisville, Ky.