Dramatic video from Michigan’s Oxford High School shows students reacting quickly after gunman tries to enter classroom

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A dramatic video taken inside Michigan’s Oxford High School during Tuesday’s shooting shows students refusing to open the door and escaping through a window after someone apparently impersonating a sheriff’s officer asks them to open their classroom door.

In the 52-second video, which was shared on TikTok and uploaded to Twitter, several students huddle and crouch down together when they hear a voice at the door. “Sheriff’s office. It’s safe to come out,” the voice says. A student from inside the classroom responds, “We’re not willing to take that risk right now.”

The voice replies, “Come to the door and look at my badge, bro,” to which one student says, “He said, ‘Bro.’ Red flag.”

Seconds later, the students scramble to open a window and then jump through it, running across snow and into a separate building entrance, where a law enforcement officer lets them in. The officer reassures them they’re safe.

CNN verified the video was taken that day by student Mark Kluska. During a press conference on Tuesday night, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said police were told the shooter may have pretended to be law enforcement to enter classrooms.

Prior to the attack, the students had been trained on how to react during active school shooting drills. According to Oxford High School’s website, on Oct. 7, the students participated in a safety drill called ALICE, which stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate.

Aiden Page, a senior at Oxford High, told The New York Times that after hearing two gunshots, his teacher immediately locked their classroom door. Students created a barricade with chairs to block the door and covered the windows with whiteboards. Mr. Page said that some of the students in the classroom grabbed scissors to arm themselves.

During ALICE training lockdown drills, students are taught to barricade entry points if immediate evacuation is impossible, to communicate the intruder’s location and direction in real time using video surveillance, 911 calls and PA announcements, and if confronted by a shooter, to create noise, distance and movement to reduce the shooter’s ability to aim accurately.

Since 2006, Michigan has mandated that kindergarten-to-Grade 12 public and private schools practise a minimum of two lockdown drills a year.

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Ethan Crumbley, 15, was charged Wednesday with murder, terrorism and other counts in the shooting that killed four students and injured others. It’s the deadliest shooting at a U.S. K-12 school since 2018.

Mr. Crumbley has been charged as an adult with one count of terrorism causing death, four counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of assault with intent to murder.

Prosecutor Karen McDonald did not reveal a possible motive. However, she said prosecutors are “confident” they can show the crime was premeditated.

“There is a mountain of digital evidence. Videotape, social media, all digital evidence possible,” she said.

Deputies rushed to the school around lunch time and arrested the suspect in a hallway within minutes. He put his hands in the air as deputies approached, Sheriff Bouchard said late Tuesday at a news conference.

The boy’s father last Friday bought the 9-millimetre Sig Sauer used in the shooting, Sheriff Bouchard said. He did not know why the man bought the semi-automatic handgun, which his son had been posting pictures of and practice-shooting, he said.

The four students who were killed were identified as 16-year-old Tate Myre, 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin and 17-year-old Justin Shilling, who died Wednesday.

With a report from Associated Press

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