Florida school board meeting ends with gunman's self-inflicted death

Staring at Death: 'God Blocked the Bullet,' Fla. School Official Says
Dec 15, 2010 – 12:30 PM
by Lisa Flam

(Dec. 15) -- With a heavily armed ex-convict shooting directly at him, a Florida schools superintendent was prepared to die but said today he was saved when "God blocked the bullet."

"I was very confident that I was going to get shot. I wasn't pulling for it, but I was ready if that was going to happen," Bay City Schools Superintendent Bill Husfelt said today on ABC's "Good Morning America." "I knew where I would go if I were to pass away. I was very prepared for that."

The gunman, Clay A. Duke, opened fire on Husfelt at a school board meeting Tuesday night in Panama City, but nobody was hit. A security officer, Mike Jones, exchanged fire with Duke, wounding him. Duke, 56, then fatally shot himself with a 9 mm handgun, the only casualty of the violence caught on videotape.

"He was pointing right at me," Husfelt recalled on CBS' "The Early Show." "God blocked the bullet. I really believe that."

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God Blocked the Bullet

School chief who tried to calm Fla. school board shooter in 'surreal' ordeal says faith helped



PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — A 56-year-old ex-convict calmly held a school board at gunpoint and said he was seeking redress for his wife's firing before shooting at the superintendent at short range and then killing himself.

No bullets struck the superintendent, Bill Husfelt, who credited God for his escape late Tuesday. The gunman, Clay A. Duke, apparantly created a Facebook page last week that refers to class warfare and is laced with images from the movie "V for Vendetta," in which a mysterious figure battles a totalitarian government.

"We could tell by the look in his eyes that this wasn't going to end well," Husfelt later told The Associated Press.

As the Bay City school board was in the midst of a discussion Tuesday, Duke walked to the front of the room, spray painted a red "V'' with a circle around it on the white wall, then turned and waved a handgun. He calmly ordered everyone to "hit the road" except the men on the board sitting behind a long beige desk.
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http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/sns-ap-us-school-board-shooting,0,1838964.story