Thomas Jefferson HS Shooting: Hero staff recall helping victim, looking after students

DALLAS - The educators who helped get students inside Thomas Jefferson High School during a shooting are being called heroes.

Three people who work at the Northwest Dallas high school described what happened after a student was shot in the parking lot after school.

Those three, along with a parent, helped the student shot in the arm while getting others to safety.

The Dallas ISD Police Department has not provided any updates related to the arrest or the ongoing investigation.

We know that parents were notified Wednesday night about an arrest via email, but we don't know if that person is the shooter or the other person in the car.

Meanwhile, we're hearing from the three staffers who rushed to help the teen who was shot and who stepped up under chaotic and dangerous circumstances.

"When we got there is when we saw the individual down on the ground," head band director Bob Romano recalled.

A student at Thomas Jefferson High School in Northwest Dallas was shot in the parking lot after classes were dismissed on Tuesday.

The superintendent said the student was shot in the arm. Two people in a car took off. At least one of them is believed to also be a student at the school.

"There was a parent there who had his belt off and was starting to apply a tourniquet. Raul ran in there and helped stop the bleeding," Romano said.

"I had towels. We just stopped the bleed from flowing out. We did everything we could to make sure he was good," campus athletic trainer Raul Velazquez said.

Several students were in the parking lot.

Assistant athletic director Brandi Elder ushered them to safety.

"We had kids on the other side, get them away from the blood, of course," Elder recalled. "I'm just very, very glad that we all were there."

A friend of the victim also helped render aid.

"Took his sweater off and tied it on there," Romano said.

"It was a matter of working together," Velazquez added.

Velazquez and Elder are trained in CPR and first aid.

The district also provided staffers with what's called "stop the bleed training."

Part of the training involves keeping the injured person, in this case the wounded student, alert.

"He did a good job with that because he was definitely in and out. He was going in and out and Raul kept him going," Romano said.

EMS arrived on scene within minutes and rushed the victim to the hospital.

Classes resumed Thursday after a day off for students to recover emotionally.

It was already a challenging few years for Thomas Jefferson High School students before the shooting.

They were relocated after a tornado destroyed their school in 2019.

The new campus just opened in January.

Staffers want their students to have some normalcy.

"We're resilient and we can do whatever it is we need to do to make sure we're all okay. We stick together and we do it," Elder said.

"I'll just leave it with one word: Strong. TJ strong," Velazquez added.

Romano said the band has a performance Thursday night that they have been practicing for for months.

He told the students he could cancel it if they didn't feel like performing, but the students said they needed this positive distraction.

Romano said he does too.