RENO, Nev. (AP) – Country singer Billy Ray Cyrus honored a Nevada teacher killed by a 12-year-old student in a schoolyard shooting last year, calling him a “true American hero.”
Cyrus praised Michael Landsberry and presented a memorial plaque to his widow, Sharon, during a concert Saturday night in Incline Village, a Nevada community on north shore of Lake Tahoe.
Police say Landsberry, a 45-year-old ex-Marine, tried to talk the shooter into turning over the handgun before he was shot in the chest Oct. 21 at a middle school in the Reno suburb of Sparks. The student wounded two classmates before taking his life.
“Tonight we are here to honor a true American hero,” Cyrus told a crowd of over 1,000. “Michael Landsberry made the ultimate sacrifice to save his students after serving three terms in Afghanistan.”
Cyrus said Landsberry also represented the courage of the Vietnam veteran honored in his patriotic song, “Some Gave All.” With a large photograph of Landsberry in the background and the math teacher’s widow on stage, Cyrus led the crowd in singing the song.