Florida deputy credited with stopping school shooting receives honors

OCALA, Fla. (WOGX FOX 51) - The Florida deputy credited with stopping an accused school shooter has been recognized for his heroic actions.  

The Florida Association of School Resource Officers on Monday named Corporal Jim Long, of the Marion County Sheriff's Office, their 2018 School Resource Officer of the Year. Deputy Long is assigned to Forest High School where he, and multiple school staff members, responded to a school shooting that occurred on April 20. 

A body camera worn by a Deputy Long recorded the apprehension Sky Bouche, 19, after authorities said the teenager opened fire at the school in Ocala. One student, a 17-year-old boy, was injured in the incident.   

In the video, Deputy Jim Long is seen searching the school and eventually locating and handcuffing Bouche. Surveillance video from the school has also been released, in which you see Bouche bounding up some stairs, carrying a guitar case.  Inside that case, deputies say, was a 16-gauge, sawed-off shotgun, a tactical vest, gloves, and multiple shotgun shells.

Deputies say Bouche went into a boy's bathroom at the school, loaded the gun, and put on his armor.  Bouche allegedly fired one round into a classroom --  the shotgun blasting through the door and hitting the student in the ankle. 

Body camera video shows Deputy Long racing from room to room, looking for the accused shooter. He finds Bouche in a classroom. 

"Put your hands behind your back!" Deputy Long commanded, which was followed by a bizarre exchange.

"I'm sorry sir, I wasn't raised by the right people," Bouche is heard telling Deputy Long, to which the deputy replies, "Are you kidding me? ... Don't say another word!"

In a jailhouse interview with FOX 35/FOX 51, Bouche said that when he fired one shot inside the school, it was a cry for help; however, records show that Bouche had been on the FBI’s radar for at least five years.  

Documents obtained by FOX 35/FOX 51 show that an alarm sounded for the FBI when they saw an middle school student in Ocala make threats online -- posting comments on YouTube videos of the Columbine mass shooting.  

Both the Marion County Sheriff’s Office and Ocala Police Department were alerted back in October of 2013 that then 15-year-old Bouche made “numerous inflamed derogatory comments,” like, “I’m thinking about doing my school the same way, I have enough guns and ammo. I have been planning for months, but not sure when to do it.” And, “Everybody will know my name.”

Fast-forward nearly five years, Bouche is now 19 years old, accused of going to Forest High School on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting and opening fire. 

“Built up over years, and so I prepared to go and scare people,” Bouche said in the days following the shooting incident. 

Bouche is facing multiple charges, to include terrorism, aggravated assault with a firearm, culpable negligence, carrying a concealed firearm, possession of a firearm on school property, possession of a short-barreled shotgun, interference in a school function and armed trespassing on school property.

He is currently being held in the Marion County Jail on no bond.