Richmond shooting: Teachers locked selves in bathroom

Jan 01, 2024

The graduation ceremony had ended, and nearly 300 Huguenot High School students had processed out of the Altria Theater and onto the sidewalk Tuesday evening. The teachers, wearing their green and gold robes, were cheering them, hugging them and clapping for them. It was such a happy moment.

Then Fabiola Chesnut, a Spanish teacher at Huguenot, heard a series of gunshots in rapid progression. Someone yelled "Shooter! Run!" and everyone scattered – into Monroe Park, into the parking garage and down the nearby streets.

Chesnut fled into the theater, down one flight of stairs and found a bathroom. She and another teacher hurried inside, slammed the door and turned the lock. For the next 45 minutes, they huddled together, unsure what was occurring outside.

Just minutes earlier, the theater had been packed. The ROTC had presented the colors, the principal had welcomed families, and two students presented speeches.

A teacher with 12 years' experience, Chesnut knows when a fight is about to break out. She can see it escalating. But there was none of that Tuesday night.

Chesnut never saw the gunshots. But she heard about 10 of them, one immediately after another. The crowd scattered, and Chesnut instinctively ran back into the theater.

"I was in disbelief," she said. "It was surreal."

Graduate, stepfather killed in shooting after Richmond graduation

Inside the bathroom, she called 911. There was a shooter, she said. Send somebody. The dispatcher told them to be quiet.

There were screams coming from outside the bathroom, and Chesnut imagined the shooter closing in.

Someone knocked on the bathroom door and pushed on it. Was it the shooter? Chesnut and her colleague decided not to answer. Three more times, they heard knocks and pushing against the door.

On her phone, she texted other teachers and administrators. Some responded they were safe, hiding in closets.

Minutes went by, and eventually there were two loud, jarring bangs on the door. "Richmond police department," someone shouted. The other teacher went to open the door, but Chesnut stopped her. Was it really the police?

Chesnut texted an assistant principal. Is it safe to come out?

"I think so," he responded.

Chesnut dialed another colleague, who said the scene was safe. Carefully, Chesnut opened the bathroom door and stepped out.

Outside the theater, students and families were traumatized, tears running down their cheeks. They held one another.

Chesnut got on the bus that would take her back to Huguenot. But she saw a student she knew, and she rushed off. The student had been standing next to his friend when the friend was shot and began to bleed. The friend's father, also hit, had suffered a gunshot wound to the face.

The surviving student's voice quivered, his body trembled. Chesnut embraced him and tried to comfort him. She urged him to seek professional help for the trauma he had just endured.

Police identified the slain victims as Shawn Jackson, an 18-year-old new Huguenot graduate, and Renzo Smith, 36 and Shawn's stepfather. Five others were injured in the shooting, and one was in critical condition Wednesday afternoon. Authorities have charged Amari Ty-Jon Pollard with two counts of second-degree murder.

Chesnut often saw Jackson entering English class in the room next door, but she didn't know him well. Back on the bus, Chesnut called her husband and grown son to let them know she was OK. After she arrived at Huguenot, another teacher asked "Wasn't this the worst experience of your life?"

The question transported her 35 years into the past, when she was living in Mexico and working as a dentist. She routinely rode a bus a short distance from Morelia to Lázaro Cárdenas, where her office was located.

One night, on the ride home, the bus stopped half way short of its destination. Three men carrying machine guns boarded the bus, possibly members of a drug cartel. They demanded everyone's money, and one of the men took the tip of the gun and touched it to Chesnut's head. To this day, she can still feel the point of the rifle on her head.

After the passengers handed over their watches, rings and cash, the men left. But the incident compelled Chesnut to leave Michoacán and its escalating violence.

"I came to the United States in search of safety," she said.

She's lived here 30 years now, but school shootings are occurring with "relentless frequency," she said, causing her to confront her own vulnerability.

Last year, it was the final day of the school year at Huguenot, and students were playing basketball and volleyball outside. A teacher screamed "gun," prompting security and police to descend on the blacktop, but they never found a gun. The school year ended in lockdown.

"We couldn't say goodbye to anyone," Chesnut said.

Anger has filled her from what she termed a lack of gun control legislation despite the numerous acts of violence occurring every day, she said.

Death and fear have become all too familiar at Huguenot. Another student, Jaden Carter, was shot and killed near campus in January. Another, Josie Cox, died in a car crash in November. Both were posthumously given certificates at Tuesday's graduation.

The faculty was given the day off Wednesday. Chesnut woke up feeling grateful to be alive. Her husband, Andrew, is a continent away, currently conducting research in Bahia, Brazil, near the Atlantic Ocean.

On Saturday, Chesnut will board a plane and fly to Brazil to see her husband again.

A sign at Huguenot High School gives details for commencement exercises the day after a shooting claimed the lives of two at the ceremony.

Huguenot High School the day after a shooting claimed the lives of two at a graduation ceremony.

A sign at Huguenot High School congratulates the class of 2023 the day after a shooting claimed the lives of two at a graduation ceremony.

Mayor Levar Stoney speaks at a press conference on Wednesday about a shooting that occurred at the Huguenot High School graduation.

Richmond's Interim Chief of Police, Rick Edwards, participates in a press conference on Wednesday about a shooting that occurred at the Huguenot High School graduation.

A piece from a mortar board lays on the ground at the site of a shooting at Huguenot High School's graduation ceremony.

Police officers sit on their bikes in Monroe Park near the site of a shooting that took place after Huguenot High School's graduation ceremony on Tuesday.

A carnation lays on the ground at the site of a shooting at Huguenot High School's graduation ceremony.

Bouquets of flowers lay on the ground next to blood stains at the site of a shooting at Huguenot High School's graduation ceremony.

Bouquets of flowers lay on the ground next to blood stains at the site of a shooting at Huguenot High School's graduation ceremony.

A VCU police vehicle drives past Altria Theater where a shooting at Huguenot High School's graduation ceremony occurred the night before.

Richmond's Interim Chief of Police, Rick Edwards, speaks at a press conference on Wednesday about a shooting that occurred at the Huguenot High School graduation.

Richmond's Interim Chief of Police, Rick Edwards, speaks at a press conference on Wednesday about a shooting that occurred at the Huguenot High School graduation.

Eric Kolenich (804) 649-6109

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@EricKolenich on Twitter

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