{"id":586510,"date":"2026-04-15T22:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T22:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/586510\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T22:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T22:00:15","slug":"oklahoma-principal-shot-while-tackling-ex-student-armed-with-handguns-oklahoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/586510\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma principal shot while tackling ex-student armed with handguns | Oklahoma"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Oklahoma<\/a> principal has been praised for preventing a tragedy at his high school by charging and disarming a former student armed with two semi-automatic handguns, an episode captured on dramatic surveillance video.<\/p>\n

Kirk Moore, principal of Pauls Valley high school, was shot in the leg as he wrestled the attacker, a 20-year-old said by court documents to be obsessed with the 1999 shooting at Colorado\u2019s Columbine high school in which 12 students and one teacher were killed.<\/p>\n

Authorities in Garvin county, about 60 miles south of Oklahoma<\/a> City, said Moore\u2019s action of racing from his office in the school\u2019s lobby, and throwing himself on top of the suspect, undoubtedly prevented a tragedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t surprise me the actions that he took, but it is amazing, the actions that he took,\u201d Don May, chief of the Pauls Valley police department, told NBC News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a doubt in my mind that he saved kids\u2019 lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Investigators said the alleged attacker, Victor Lee Hawkins, fired several shots before he was disarmed by Moore and another staff member who arrived to help. Nobody was hurt other than the principal, who needed hospital treatment for a wound to his lower right leg.<\/p>\n

Hawkins remained at the Garvin county detention center on Tuesday on $1m bail, NBC reported, awaiting a court appearance on 8 May. He faces charges of shooting with intent to kill, feloniously pointing a firearm and carrying a weapon to a public assembly.<\/p>\n

The incident occurred shortly before 2.20pm on 7 April, according to an arrest affidavit<\/a> signed by special agent Meric Mussett of the Oklahoma state bureau of investigation.<\/p>\n

About 20 minutes earlier, Mussett wrote, Hawkins, a 2025 graduate of the high school, took two of his father\u2019s weapons from a closet in their home and drove to the campus \u201cwith the intent of killing students, facility [sic], and finally himself\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hawkins \u201centered the school, pointed his pistol, and yelled for everyone to get on the ground\u201d, Mussett said, adding that he pointed the gun at a female student in the lobby and pulled the trigger, but the weapon malfunctioned.<\/p>\n

\u201cHawkins then stepped out from behind the vending machine and pointed his gun at a male student in the foyer. Principal Moore then came out of his office and charged at Hawkins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mussett said Hawkins told him he wanted to \u201cconduct his own school shooting like the Columbine shooters did\u201d, referring to the 1999 Colorado tragedy in which two teenage assailants took their own lives after murdering students and staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cHawkins did not like Moore, therefore Hawkins went to the school to kill Moore,\u201d Mussett wrote.<\/p>\n

A statement on its website<\/a> under the heading \u201csafe school\u201d details Pauls Valley\u2019s preparations for such an incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout the past decade\u2026 the high school has also developed and practiced safety measures to be taken should there be an intruder or dangerous individual on campus,\u201d it said. \u201cIt is our foremost concern that our students feel and are safe at school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several former students told Oklahoma City\u2019s ABC News affiliate KOCO<\/a> they were not surprised by Moore\u2019s action.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf some student was to get harmed, he would definitely take a bullet for him. I believe that,\u201d Spencer Flinn said.<\/p>\n

In a statement reported by NBC, Moore said he was grateful for \u201can outpouring of love and support\u201d that followed the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike so many educators around the country, we prepare for these events through training and careful assessment of the threats,\u201d he said. \u201cI am grateful that my instincts and training, as well as God\u2019s hand, were available to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore said he was \u201chealthy and recovering\u201d, and looking forward to returning to work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Oklahoma principal has been praised for preventing a tragedy at his high school by charging and disarming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-586510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}