WEST PALM BEACH – Bob Sullivan’s 16-year-old daughter attends Dreyfoos School of the Arts.
Sullivan was shopping at Aldi Friday when he received a series of text messages from his daughter.
“Hello Dad, we are currently on the red code. It’s real. I love you, “she wrote.
What Happened: Students, Staff Safe After West Palm Beach Police Shootout at Dreyfoos School of the Arts
More: How did Palm Beach High Schools do in the 2022 US News & World Report?
More: Dreyfoos history can bring schools $ 8 million, but can it also create housing for the workforce?
On Friday afternoon, a van crashed through a metal fence and into the Dreyfoos campus in West Palm Beach with city police in pursuit, sending the school into a blockade. Police in West Palm Beach say city police shot and killed a man who got out of a van and acted haphazardly.
After reading his daughter’s texts about the incident, Sullivan immediately dropped his groceries and rushed to the school, imagining the “worst case scenario,” he said, fighting back tears.
Meanwhile, his daughter, an 11th-grade visual arts student, is hiding behind a locked door in a women’s locker room as the incident unfolds.
Sullivan arrived at a sea of flashing red and blue lights. Standing behind a yellow police strip near Fern Street and South Sapodilla Avenue, he read new text messages from his daughter, who asked not to be named.
She heard the knock on the door, as someone announced to the Police, but was hesitant to leave. Coordinating her rescue outside the campus, Sullivan spoke with a police officer who assured the worried father that it was now “100% safe” for his daughter to come out of hiding.
Memories of the 2018 Parkland shooting
All he could do was wait. Sullivan stared at the campus, eagerly awaiting news of his daughter.
Sullivan said his family lived in Parkland in 2018. They felt an immediate wave of grief that followed the shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, and those memories returned on Friday afternoon.
The story continues
“She is safe but traumatized,” Sullivan said of his daughter.
Giuseppe Sabella is a veteran reporter for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can contact him at gsabella@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared in the Palm Beach Post: Shooting at West Palm Beach near Dreyfoos School: Dad goes to daughter
Add Comment