A heroic Oklahoma high school principal, shot in the leg while taking down a school shooter, was crowned prom king this weekend.
A heartwarming video from Friday night showed students at Pauls Valley High School, 60 miles south of Oklahoma City, crowning Kirk Moore just weeks after he disarmed a former student who had plans of carrying out a mass shooting.
In the video from prom night, Moore walks through the crowd at the dance and high-fives cheering students. The DJ declared Moore “our king” and then played the Nickelback song “Hero.”
Moore has been lauded for his heroic actions after he wrestled Victor Lee Hawkins, a 20-year-old former student, to the ground after he entered the school and began firing a pistol earlier this month.
Surveillance footage captured Moore tackling Hawkins, disarming him and staying on top of him until police arrived April 7.
The video, released by the school district, showed the suspect in a dark hooded sweatshirt entering the school and pointing a handgun at two students in the lobby.
Moore can then be seen rushing at him and taking him to the ground. The footage also shows another teacher picking up the gun and taking it away.
No students were injured in the attack.
“The actions of the staff and the principal stepping in as soon as they saw a subject with a firearm saved lives today,” Hunter McKee, a spokesperson for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, said after the shooting.
Hawkins was arrested and charged with unlawfully carrying a firearm, shooting with the intent to kill and pointing a firearm.
Hawkins told investigators that he had planned to kill students, Moore and then himself in a mass shooting “like the Columbine shooters did,” referencing the 1999 school shooting in Colorado that resulted in the deaths of 12 students and a teacher.
Hawkins has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges. His court-appointed attorney, Tyson Stanek, declined to comment on the charges, citing policies of the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System. He is being held on a $1 million bond.
