How a school resource officer helps avoid tragedy

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO/AP) — A 14-year-old accused of fatally shooting four people in Georgia on Wednesday is in custody, but this may not have happened when it did were it not for a certain encounter.

“Our school resource officer engaged him, and the shooter quickly realized that if he did not give up, that it would end with an OIS, an officer-involved shooting,” Sheriff Jud Smith of Barrow County said. “He gave up.”

News of a school shooting such as that has John Estep with the Sioux Falls Police Department evaluating his own work.

“Definitely first initial one is heartbreaking, and then also the next thing for me, I guess, would be to make sure I’m taking my right steps that I’m able to to make sure that my school is safe,” Estep said.

Estep is a school resource officer at Memorial Middle School along with a handful of elementary schools. It’s a role he treasures.

“I like to do some, just, safety checks,” Estep said. “I’ll go around and check doors, check some cameras, make sure they’re functional, things like that. That way we know that inside and out we are safe where we need to be.”

While his eyes are always peeled, he reminds the community that everyone can help keep schools safe.

“If you see something, say something,” Estep said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s something you see laying outside the school, something that maybe somebody else might have brought inside the school, anything like that.”

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