Witnesses testify in school shooting case

GAINESVILLE – On Wednesday, more than a dozen people were scheduled to give their accounts of a school shooting earlier this year.  The May 18 High Springs Community School shooting that rocked the area landed 63-year-old Robert Nodine in jail.

The public defender’s office filed a notice that at 9 a.m. Wednesday, it would begin taking depositions of 13 witnesses in the case. Those witnesses include school, Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) and High Springs Police Department (HSPD) officials and others.

Nodine is charged with four felonies, including two counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer and two counts of possession of a weapon on school property.

According to police, Nodine armed himself with a handgun and fired several shots before being taken down by gunfire from law enforcement.

The incident was apparently sparked by a request from the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) that the school not release Nodine’s two grandchildren because of an investigation being conducted by the agency.  DCF had not yet arrived at the school to deal with matters related to that investigation when Nodine arrived.

Responding to the scene when a 9-1-1 call came in around 12:51 p.m. were both ACSO deputies and HSPD officers.

Police say Nodine became irate while at the school, and while being escorted off the campus, the grandfather was reportedly able to arm himself.

Court documents indicate that not only did Nodine have a gun, but also a knife when the incident occurred.  As the altercation escalated, both Nodine and police officers reportedly fired their weapons.

Nodine was the only person reported to have been injured.  He was taken to an area hospital for treatment of his injuries, then released and remanded to the Alachua county jail, where he remains.  Nodine has a prior criminal history including resisting arrest.

Although most of the school’s children had already been released on the day of the incident because of an abbreviated Wednesday schedule, as many as 175 students remained on campus for after-school activities.

It was originally reported that none of the students were believed to have been directly exposed to the incident, but 9-1-1 calls seems to call that accounting of events into question.

A case management hearing in Nodine’s case has been set for Jan. 26 at 1:30 p.m.