With little information from the elementary school and the school district, some parents said they are navigating how to address the murder of a lunch lady with their children.
“My oldest one, she went to Google, and she looked it up. She was searching for it,” Ana Sarabia said. Sarabia has three students at the Forest Hill elementary school. She said it is the first instance gun violence has hit this close to home.
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WATCH HERE“She was like, ‘Mom I already read this and already know what happened to the lunch lady’,” Sarabia said. “It’s like, really hard, you know. Just leaving them, dropping them off at school.”
Forest Hill Police said a woman who worked at David K. Sellars Elementary School was shot several times in the parking lot located a short distance from the school’s main entrance. Calls for a shooting came in just before 7:00 a.m. Police said the victim was provided first aid before she was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, where she died.
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SIGN UP As of Thursday afternoon, the victim’s name has not been released by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office, and the shooter remains on the run.
“We do have a person of interest and we are processing evidence right now and hopefully lead to his arrest,” Forest Hill Police Chief Eddie Burns said.
In a press release, police said the shooter drove away from the scene in a silver Chevrolet Impala. The car was later abandoned in Fort Worth hours after the woman was gunned down. The car was confiscated and according to police, continues to be processed with the help of the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office.
Inside the school, trauma counselors have been on standby to provide grief support to students and staff. According to the Fort Worth School District, two additional security officers were on campus Thursday.
“There was a little bit more security today, but that was it,” Etho Pugh said. Pugh is a parent of a student at the school. “Other than that, it kind of flowed like normal.”
According to a spokesperson for the school district, the principal of Sellars Elementary allegedly encouraged employees to take time off to process the murder adding they would not be expected to be present for the rest of the week.
