Town Rallies Around Mom Who Called 911 on Her Son

Mary York almost certainly saved lives
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 17, 2018 5:13 PM CST

An Indiana mom made a heart-wrenching choice, and now her community is rallying around her. Dozens showed up for a candlelight vigil Sunday in Richmond to support Mary York, who called 911 Thursday to warn that her son was going to Dennis Intermediate School with a gun, per ABC News and WTHR. Police confronted 14-year-old Brandon Clegg at the school and engaged him in a shootout before he took his own life. Clegg's family says he had been bullied at school, which they say is no justification—just an explanation of what happened.

"It destroys me to think that a kid would have to go and show his anger at a school and that he would go as far as shooting at people..." says his cousin, Thomas York. "It sucks." But most of the attention is going to Brandon's mom, 42, who made a difficult phone call that almost certainly saved lives. "She's a human. She's a mother," says vigil organizer Shawn Wright. "She lost her child." As an Indiana state police superintendent tells WCPO: "If [York] hadn't made that call, we'd be having a much different conversation right now." (On the sixth anniversary of Sandy Hook, there was a nerve-wracking morning.)

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