Nice read and surprised me a few times.

Here is my take away and I hope it helps. Behavioral studies show us that as a human in crisis especially in a crowd you MUST make eye contact with one in that crowd and verbally ask them for help. A little off point from your story but that is where my brain went. Many in this story were asking for help just not specifically.

Last thought form- Mr, Murphy would have never pulled a gun in my school. Our confiscated weapons list at the end of the year was normally 100-200 weapons basically 1 in 20 kids were packing. I survived because I was one of them and it was known we all knew. I graduated with honors and never had to use or pull my choice of weapon expect once going home. We all live interesting lives.