KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Knox County Schools said Thursday it will investigate the circumstances surrounding a reported shooting outside Sarah Moore Greene Elementary Tuesday afternoon, which led to a two-hour lockdown at the school and an outcry over police response from teachers.
A mother of an Austin-East student told Knoxville Police the incident began when someone in a white Toyota chased her and her son home from Austin-East Magnet High School. To evade the car following her, she pulled into the Sarah Moore Greene parking lot for safety, she said.
That's when the mother and school staff said a passenger in the Toyota shot toward the school. A school board member said there were children on the playground at the time.
"He was keep following me very, very fast and keeping going and keeping going and I keep driving," said the mother, who requested 10News not use her name because the people who shot at her have not been identified or arrested.
She said she picked up her son from Austin-East around one o'clock that afternoon after he had been involved in a fight. She said three other boys attacked him and that he did nothing wrong.
On the drive home, her son said the white Toyota Camry made a U-turn and began closely following them.
The mother said she tried to drive away fast to evade the people chasing her.
"He try to hit me and I try to protect myself," the mother said. "We turned around and he was behind me. We turned around like three times I was looking for him."
The police report said when she stopped her car, witnesses reported the suspect vehicle stopped on the road outside the school, opened the driver's door and appeared to shoot at her car.
"School staff stated they heard three gunshots," the report said.
Security camera footage showed the white Camry stopped and opened the driver's door, but officers could not see any weapons or gunshots, the report said.
At 1:23 that afternoon, a KPD spokesperson said the Sarah Moore Greene school security officer reported two vehicles chasing each other in the school parking lot.
Around 1:30, the officer called again and reported shots fired in the neighborhood behind to the school—two or three blocks away, KPD said.
About the same time, a KPD officer was dispatched to the scene and arrived at 1:35, the spokesperson said. The spokesperson said the school security officer did not report shots fired at the school.
10News reviewed audio from 911 calls made by the school security officer, which corroborate that timeline and do not mention shots fired in the school parking lot.
The mother drove her son to nearby police headquarters where they reported the incident. No one reported any injuries.
"I say thanks to God, my God," the mother said about the lack of injuries.
Investigators said they later found one shell casing on the road outside the school.
"I think the biggest thing I’m hearing from teachers right now is that they don’t feel safe," school board member Evetty Satterfield said. "Not the fact that the school is not safe just the outside of the school and everything that’s been happening in this community."
She said teachers at the school expressed frustration to her at the KPD response. Satterfield said some told her it took more than an hour for KPD to arrive.
A Knox County Schools spokeswoman said the school went into lockdown for two hours because of the incident, but did not say what time that lockdown began.
The school district spokeswoman also said the district would look into the incident and how it was reported.
"This is now a lesson to see what needs to go in place to ensure if it happens again that we’re protected," Satterfield said.