From dispatched to death: 3 minutes inside Dennis active shooter response

RICHMOND, Ind. — Two nearby Richmond Police Department officers heard a radio call shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday about an armed threat to Dennis Intermediate School.

About three minutes later the teenage boy was dead in a second-story stairwell of the school. Officials said he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound as law enforcement closed around him.

In a face-to-face interview with the Palladium-Item, Richmond Police chief Jim Branum detailed what happened Thursday morning. Wayne County Sheriff Jeff Cappa also provided insight into what transpired.

After information about an armed boy heading to the school was phoned to the Wayne County Emergency Communications Center, Dennis officials locked down the school. Cappa said three school resource officers were inside the building at the time.

Branum said nearby RPD officers arrived first at the school, within about a minute of receiving the call from dispatch. They witnessed the suspect shoot glass out of a north-side exterior door and enter the building.

While those two officers followed the suspect inside the building, another wave of law enforcement officers, including Branum, arrived at the school. Branum said he was nearing the school when he heard his officers relay on the radio that shots had been fired.

His group, which included a couple of other RPD officers, three Wayne County Sheriff's Office officers and an Indiana State Police officer, entered the school's east doors.

"Once in the building, we could hear shots being fired by the suspect, and we kept moving toward the sound of the shots," Branum said.

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