Carver High School Resource Officer Apprehends Shooter

By Chad Nance and Carissa Joines
In the final day of the first week of the 2013-2014 school year, Carver High School became the first school to experience a shooting in Winston-Salem for nearly 50 years. Due to the quick action of the school’s resource officer, 25 year WSPD veteran Tim Wilson, the situation was rapidly contained and only involved two students. The victim was transported to Wake Forest Baptist Medical with non-life threatening injuries and students were released after lock-down in an orderly fashion, escorted by police to the nearby Carl Russell Recreation Center.

At a press conference WSPD Chief Barry Rountree told reporters that at approximately 2:26pm, officers from the WSPD responded to SRO Wilson’s radio report of a shooting at Carver. The students were returning to their classrooms after being outside for a planned fire drill when the suspect fired a weapon at the victim. Wilson was able to take the suspect into custody without incident, and no additional students were involved or injured. Chief Rountree reported that the school was immediately placed on lockdown, according to policy.

WSFCS new Superintendent, Dr. Beverly Emory, stated that the school system was in contact with parents at Carver, sending out 3 notifications about the status of the situation and students. The first notified parents of the incident, the second about the injury to a student, and the third to provide information about the release of students and assuring them that the family of the injured student had been notified so that parents wouldn’t have to be concerned that it might be their child. Emory indicated that a crisis team would be on hand Tuesday when students and teachers return to school in order to handle any issues that may arise following the violent events of Friday afternoon.

As a precaution, Friday night’s football game with RJ Reynolds High School has been postponed until a later date. This was not due to any specific threat, but was attributed to the fact that without an understanding of the motive of today’s incident, a large gathering at the school could result in additional incidents.

When asked about reports from parents at the scene who stated that they were not shocked that this happened at Carver, Emory stated that “Carver is as safe as any other school in our school system.”

On January 31st a gun was seized from another student at Carver High School. Earlier that month, following a tip from a parent a 17 year-old was found in possession of a knife and another student was caught with a gun. On May 10th, at Philo-Hill Middle School, a handgun was seized from a substitute teacher after he left it on the front seat of his car in the school parking lot.

The WSPD and the District Attorney’s office have released little information about Friday’s shooting, citing the ongoing investigation. “This is everybody’s worst nightmare.” District Attorney Jim O’Niell stated.

Clearly the hero of the day was Carver High School’s Resource Officer Tim Wilson. “Our school resource officer was on the spot where he took immediate action.” stated Chief Barry Rountree.

Wilson is a 25 year veteran of the WSPD, having joined the force in October of 1988. In 1993, Officer Wilson survived a fiery car crash which left him with injuries and took the life of his partner, Officer Michael Jennings when the cruiser they had been driving wrecked and exploded near Winston Lake.

On Friday, Officer Wilson’s quick and professional response to the shooting is the best news to come out of these disturbing and tragic events.