Tuscaloosa Father Details The Horror Of Hillcrest Shooter Threat
Tuesday, December 13th will be remembered by plenty of parents in Tuscaloosa as one of the most scariest days.
On that day, it would feel like the entire city of Tuscaloosa would be on high alert due to an active shooter threat at Hillcrest High School.
Fortunately, the threat was a hoax, and all students were reported safe and uninjured after the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's deputies, Tuscaloosa Police officers, State Troopers, and Moundville Police were on the scene the morning of the hoax.
Dozens of concerned parents and guardians lined up at Hillcrest High School on the morning of December 13th awaiting word on what has happened.
Many had received texts or calls from students inside the school saying they heard that people may have been shot.
One Tuscaloosa father recalled the moment he got the call from his daughter who is a Junior at Hillcrest High School.
"She called me whispering," said Terry Banks.
"She was very quiet and she was very scared. she said there was a shooting and there were about 200 police officers at the school with helicopters and everything."
Schools across the state were plagued with unfounded threats the previous week, including schools in Huntsville and Birmingham but at the moment no one knew if this current threat was real or not.
"I'm in panic mode," said Banks.
He described his thoughts after the phone call with his daughter saying all he could think to do was "Drop what I'm doing and get to Hillcrest."
Banks described the scene as "chaos" at Hillcrest. "There were parents and police officers everywhere. All you could do was pray and get to the school."
The Tuscaloosa County School System issued a statement confirming the active shooter threat was a hoax.
"This morning, information was received by the school system and law enforcement regarding a threat to Hillcrest High School," A TCSS representative wrote. "This information was false. There was no active shooter and no shots fired. All students are safe. TCSS will follow up with more information. Again, there was no active shooter on any of our campuses this morning."
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