'Hero' Teacher Killed in School Shooting Was Former Marine

Math teacher Michael Landsberry, 45, IDed as victim
By Ruth Brown,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 21, 2013 4:59 PM CDT
'Hero' Teacher Killed in School Shooting Was Former Marine
Law enforcement personnel gather at the scene of a shooting at Sparks Middle School in Sparks, Nev.   (AP Photo/The Reno Gazette-Journal, Marilyn Newton)

The teacher killed in today's school shooting in Nevada has been identified by his family as Michael Landsberry, 45, a math teacher at Sparks Middle School who had previously served in the Marines. A local police deputy chief described Landsberry as a "hero" for intervening in the shooting and trying to get the young gunman to put his weapon down, the Reno Gazette-Journal reports. "To hear he was trying to protect those kids, that he stepped up and tried to stop the situation, doesn’t surprise me at all," says his sister-in-law Chanda Landsberry. "He could have ducked and hid, but he didn’t. That’s not who he is." Landsberry was also a member of the Nevada Army National Guard. "He loved his school kids. He loved the Guard,” she says. “It defined him." (More school shooting stories.)

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