Aaron Feis: Beloved Football Coach Shot Shielding Student From Gunfire During Florida High School Shooting
Aaron Feis jumped into action during Wednesday’s deadly school shooting in Florida, with reports that the football coach jumped to shield students from the spray of bullets and ended up being shot several times.
The shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School left 17 people dead and many more wounded when police say a heavily armed man opened fire. Authorities are still piecing together evidence and the suspect — a 19-year-old named Nikolas Cruz who had been expelled from the school — is in custody, but there are still many unanswered questions about how or why the attack took place.
As details begin to emerge in the deadly shooting, there are also some uplifting stories including the selfless act of Aaron Feis. As the Miami Herald reported, Feis jumped in front of students to protect them from the gunfire, even at the risk of his own safety.
There was initially some confusion as to whether Feis survived the shooting. It was initially reported in the afternoon that he had died, eliciting condolences on social media from students and both current and former football players at the school.
But later in the evening, another coach at the school tweeted that Feis was wounded in the attack but did not die. That hope did not last long, however, as an update from Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel noted that a beloved football coach had been killed in the attack.
This report did not name Aaron Feis specifically, but in the hours that followed many friends appeared to confirm his death on social media, offering messages of condolences and admiration for his selfless final act.
Every one is talking about a disturbed kid or arguing about #GunControlNow. Lets talk about Aaron Feis. He was a football coach at the #floridaschoolshooting He stepped in front students sheilding them with his body. He was shot multiple times and died saving the kids he loved. pic.twitter.com/llc02CM6nQ
— Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyMMA) February 15, 2018
Report: Football coach Aaron Feis stepped in front of Parkland school shooter to shield bullets from students.
Hero:https://t.co/LmRlgJ4NoJ pic.twitter.com/N3O2BErPZ2
— 247Sports (@247Sports) February 15, 2018
“He was a great guy,” sophomore Douglas lineman Gage Gaynor, whose older brother Corey now plays football for the Miami Hurricanes, told the Sun-Sentinel. “Always gave his all to making us better. Definitely learned a lot from him.”
It was not yet clear where or how Feis was shot. Local police are still gathering details about the shooting and have released little information about suspect Nikolas Cruz. Some teachers and students at the school said the suspect was a troubled young man who was expelled for misbehavior. One math teacher said that administrators were worried he might pose a threat to the school, and even warned them not to let him on the campus if he had a backpack on.
Aaron Feis reportedly worked as a security guard at the school for eight years and had been a member of the football team’s coaching staff since 2002.
