On a typical Friday morning at Forest High School in OCALA, students slowly drove through the school’s front gate, passing those red birthday wishes spelled out in cups along the chain-link fence.

Meanwhile, school buses thundered onto the Maricamp Road campus, where a total of 2,300 students are registered.

Among those arriving at 8:25 a.M., Bouche Sky, a 19-year-old former Forest student, drove a 2006 Nissan SUV from the student parking lot to the gate.

He discreetly entered the D Hallway restroom and made his way up the stairs to the second floor of the main building without being noticed. He then retrieved a guitar case and a bag, similar to the ones carried by many music class students, from where he had parked it at Bouche.

Afterwards, he left the bathroom. He obtained a 1930 shortened shotgun from the guitar case, which he had bought through a private transaction organized online. Bouche extracted a tactical vest and gloves from his bag and proceeded to wear them.

At Forest, during her initial year, Jennifer Hadden, an experienced English instructor of five years, had an infrequently utilized secured door to the classroom adjacent to the restroom. Bouche, who claimed to feel unexpectedly deflated and disoriented following the exhilaration of reaching his destination, proceeded directly towards it.

On Saturday, Hadden, a teacher of English III, eagerly anticipated her bridal shower as she distributed worksheets on literary techniques in “The Great Gatsby” to her students.

The first period of the day was a 100-minute class.

It was time to take attendance, but the doors were locked. Finally, a few last students settled inside as the entry and exit doors were deemed safer to have only one. Hadden can’t see the door to the hallway from her desk because of that. The students can use the door in C Hallway to come and go, but her classroom is located at the corner of D Hallway and C Hallway.

It was approximately 8:37 in the morning.

Evan, a 17-year-old junior, was near the hallway door when an explosion occurred in the restroom. Bouche, who had just left, saw the trash can near the door catch fire.

“I could see what I thought were floating bits of wood,” Hadden said. Initially, we were trying to figure out what happened when the trash exploded.

Evan, his left ankle was bleeding. In agony, he yelled while limping towards his desk. On top of the desk, he subsequently positioned himself lying face down.

She was not sure about her condition, but she called the front office to inform them that a student had been injured. However, her initial reaction was to call 911. The cell service in the classroom has been unreliable, so her first reaction was to call 911.

Spencer Ashley, the basketball coach of the school, assisted the student who was injured in the room where Forest Principal Brent Carson and Jimmy Long, a Marion County sheriff’s deputy and school resource officer, hurriedly arrived.

For a few moments, everyone attempted to decipher the events that had transpired.

“Then we could detect the gunpowder,” Hadden said. “That’s when everyone realized that someone had fired through the door.”

The students gather in a secure classroom that requires teachers to lock the door; the principal and coach looked at each other and said, “Red Code,” which is the most severe level of warning.

Down the hallway on Hallway D, just a few doors away, you can find Kelly McManis-Panasuk’s classroom, which had already been handed over to her by another teacher who was unaware of the shooter. Shouting “Code Red” as he ran through the corridors, the coach hurried to alert others.

Rick D’Angelo, her future husband, desired to inform Hadden but was aware that her phone service was unreliable. Hadden and her pupils entered a neighboring classroom with another group right after Ashley quickly rushed down the corridor to alert others.

She messaged Hadden, the Star-Banner, about him. Someone hit a child in the ankle and shot through the classroom door.

A few moments later, she typed: “We’re under Code Red lockdown.” Several minutes elapsed, and she messaged: “Hello?”.

“Oh, shoot,” D’Angelo responded after a few minutes. “Are you alright? Hello!?!!?! I’m on my way.”

“Jesus Christ. I’m overjoyed that you’re alright. I wouldn’t know how to manage without you,” D’Angelo arrived and messaged that he spotted her sitting outside the school. She later replied that she was fine, but “panicked.”

In an interview with the Star-Banner, the perpetrator claimed that Bouche heard Evan screaming in agony after he blew a hole in the classroom door. Bouche stated that he raised his hands and discarded the shotgun in the hallway. McManis-Panasuk emerged from her doorway as she had recently admitted a frightened student into her room.

Thomas Kannegieter, a 17-year-old, told the Star-Banner on Friday that he was in a classroom three doors down from the area where the shooting occurred.

He stated, “I perceived a resounding explosion,” he recollected. He strolled into the corridor and observed an individual donning what seemed to be a bullet-resistant vest with numerous compartments, “Out of inquisitiveness,” he expressed.

He stated that the gentleman was conversing with an educator. Behind the gentleman, a shotgun rested on the floor of the hallway.

Bouche said that he had actually fired a weapon, but he did not mean to hurt anyone and no one was hurt. He also indicated that he did not know he had fired the gun. Bouche told Panasuk-McManis that he wanted to be arrested because he was mentally ill. Panasuk-McManis saw Bouche with his hands up.

Bouche walked into McManis-Panasuk’s classroom while keeping his hands raised, except for when he took out some shotgun shells and a knife from his vest pockets. At that point, she contacted the school office to inform them about the shooting and let them know that she was with the suspect, who was now without any weapons. McManis-Panasuk instructed Bouche to remain stationary.

Bouche, who offered no resistance, was apprehended by Deputy Long just one minute later. Numerous offenses, including acts of terrorism, were leveled against Bouche, who is currently being detained without the possibility of bail and was taken into custody.

After the arrest of the shooter, deputies from the sheriff’s office went from room to room to ensure the safety of the students. Eventually, everyone was taken to First Baptist Church of Ocala, where they were reunited with their family members and guided outside.