LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- When the 911 calls were released Thursday from the day of a school shooting in Richmond, Ind., many people were stunned to learn that the shooter's mother made the first call.
According to report by WXIN Fox 59, the shooting took place just over three months ago. Police say 14-year-old Brandon Clegg exchanged gunfire with officers at David W. Dennis Intermediate School before taking his own life.
Mary York told Fox 59 she wanted to warn police about her son to safe his life.
"I tried everything I could to stop him," she said.
Since December, she has stayed quiet. She found the courage Thursday to step forward.
"To say who my son really was not what everyone is saying he is," she said.
She described her son as kind, caring and funny. Her community knows him as the teen who charged into the middle school with a gun.
Police said York was the first person to call 911. She said her boyfriend at the time reached out and explained they had a problem at home.
"He's telling me my son has a gun and wants to take him to Dennis Middle School," she said.
She thinks he took two guns and threatened to kill her ex-boyfriend if he did not drive him to the school. She believes her ex-boyfriend should have never left the house.
Police say they confronted the teen outside the school, and he ran inside before exchanging shots with the officers. Her son then took his own life, police said.
Officers were able to react quickly to the scene, because they had received a tip from her about a possible threat just before the shooting.
"I knew he was not going there to hurt nobody," she said. "He was going there to take his own life."
York said her son was bullied for years. She said she does not condone anything her son did on that day. She said she didn't see any warning signs.
Many students were traumatized by the events that unfolded. Some felt unsafe to come back to school. As she mourns the death of her son, York thinks of those families, too.
"I can only tell those kids how sorry I am my son went in there," she said.
York is trying to work with lawmakers to file legislation on bullying and suicide prevention.
Copyright 2019 by WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
