Math teacher describes hugging middle school shooter she disarmed: ‘It was a little girl’
She was just a girl, and teacher Krista Gneiting could tell she was unhappy.
The sixth-grader was also holding a gun, and three people had been shot.
“Are you the shooter?” Gneiting asked gently, recalling the May 6 shooting incident at Rigby Middle School in Idaho Falls in which two students and a custodian were wounded. None of the injuries were life-threatening, authorities said.
“It was a little girl, and my brain couldn’t quite grasp that,” the math teacher told ABC News in an exclusive interview that aired Wednesday. “I just knew when I saw that gun, I had to get the gun.”
Get the gun she did, and then, instinctively, Gneiting put her arms around the girl.
“I just walked up to her and I put my hand over her hand, I just slowly pulled the gun out of her hand and she allowed me to,” she told ABC News. “She didn’t give it to me, but she didn’t fight. And then after I got the gun, I just pulled her into a hug because I thought, this little girl has a mom somewhere that doesn’t realize she’s having a breakdown and she’s hurting people.”
Without letting go, the teacher called 911 and continued holding the girl, calming her down until police came and then explaining the need for handcuffs.
The girl had opened fire at about 9 a.m. at Rigby Middle School in Idaho Falls, about 45 miles from the state’s eastern border with Wyoming. The student has not been identified but could face three counts of attempted murder. All three victims were expected to survive.
A similar linking of bravery and compassion took place in Oregon in 2019, when high school security guard and football coach Keanon Lowe took down a would-be shooter at Parkrose High School in Portland and then held him in a hug until police arrived. Lowe, hailed as a hero, received a Citizen Honor Award from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society for his actions, which were caught on security video.
Gneiting was not filmed, but she described defusing the situation while they waited for police.
“After a while, the girl started talking to me, and I could tell she was very unhappy,” Gneiting told ABC News. “I just kept hugging her and loving her and trying to let her know that we’re going to get through this together.”
