Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/1079661
B y A l e x a n d r a B e c k e r John Barnes confronted the shooter at Santa Fe High School O N the morning of May 18, 2018, Officer John Barnes arrived at work hungry. It was the Friday of National Police Week, and Santa Fe High School had planned an omelet breakfast for its school resource officers—a gesture of thanks and appreciation for keeping students and faculty safe throughout the year. Barnes can remember the omelets, that they were sup- posed to be served that morning. But his memory grows foggy when he tries to recall why he first stepped into the hallway, where a woman approached him to report sounds of gunfire. Just one month earlier, Santa Fe High, located about 36 miles southeast of Houston, had ordered a lock- down after rumors of an active shooter circulated; Barnes assumed that this morning's report, too, would turn out to be a misunderstanding. But then the sting of gunpowder hit his nostrils. The smell was unmistakable. Barnes quickly removed his pistol from his belt as a fire alarm pierced the hallway and a rush of students poured out of the gymnasium. Gun by his side, he pushed through the crowd, craning his neck as he listened for gunshots and scanning every square inch of his sight line for someone with a weapon. Then, he said, it all went to hell. "People are getting shot in front of me," Barnes recalled. "And very quickly, everybody either exits out the door or goes past me." Barnes was left standing in the hallway, blood smeared on the ground in front of him and glass shattering behind him. Another Santa Fe Independent School District (ISD) officer, Gary Forward, was close behind. Could there be more than one shooter? One behind and one in front? Never, not once, did Barnes think his confusion would be explained away by the wide spray of small metallic spheres from the shell of a shotgun, a weapon worshiped by hunt- ers for its deference to destruction above precision. ➟