Body camera footage captured the tense encounter between an Oklahoma high school principal and an armed suspect who shot him in the leg. Kirk Moore has been hailed as a hero after he left his office, tackled the suspect, and wrestled the gun away.
Oklahoma police said the suspect, 20-year-old Victor Lee Hawkins, walked into the lobby of Pauls Valley High School with two semi-automatic handguns on April 7, the Daily Mail reports.. Officials said he told students and employees in the lobby to get down before trying to shoot a student. When the gun jammed, Hawkins cleared the blockage and shot at another teen.
In an arrest affidavit, police wrote that Victor Lee Hawkins walked into the school lobby Tuesday afternoon with two semiautomatic handguns. He allegedly demanded everyone on the ground and tried to shoot one student, but the gun jammed. After Hawkins cleared the jammed gun, the affidavit states he shot at another student but did not hit him.
NEW🚨: Oklahoma principal Kirk Moore is being hailed a hero nationwide for tackling a would-be mass shooter at Pauls Valley High School.
When a 20-year-old former student entered the school armed with a gun on Tuesday, Principal Moore immediately confronted him, wrestled the… pic.twitter.com/qOudNItrUo
— Officer Lew (@officer_Lew) April 9, 2026
Two Pauls Valley High School students begged for their lives and were permitted to leave. Other students started running from the school. That’s when the high school principa; sprinted out of a doorway toward Hawkins, Kirk Moore got behind him and tackled him to the ground, grabbing one of his guns and forcing him face down on a bench as he pinned him down with an assistant principal’s help, the affidavit states.
Hawkins, a former student of the school, told police he “did not like” the high school principal and acknowledged he “wanted to conduct his own school shooting like the Columbine shooters did,” referring to a school shooting at a Colorado high school in 1999 that left 12 students and staff members and two students dead.
A high school principal in Oklahoma was shot in the leg last Tuesday after confronting a man who entered the school with a gun, authorities said. This footage was released hours ago. Pauls Valley High School Principal Kirk Moore is in stable condition, and no students were… pic.twitter.com/2blduUzpXO
— GoodNewsMovement (@GoodNewsMVT) April 14, 2026
In court crime documents, Hawkins allegedly confessed to stealing his father’s guns and bringing them to the school because he wanted to kill students and faculty. The documents state that Hawkins told police he planned to kill himself after shooting students, faculty and the high school principal.
Pauls Valley Police Chief Don May said the high school principal’s actions likely saved the lives of students. “It doesn’t surprise me the actions that he took, but it is amazing, the actions that he took,” May said. “There’s not a doubt in my mind that he saved kids’ lives.”
Kirk Moore released a statement after the shooting thanking the community for their “outpouring of love and support.” Hawkins is being held at the Garvin County Detention Center on $1 million bond, jail records show.
He’s been charged with shooting with intent to kill, two counts of feloniously pointing a firearm, and two counts of carrying a weapon into a place of public assembly. A preliminary hearing is set for May 8.
