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Thursday, December 23, 2010

Purse used in attempt to stop school board shooter gets $13,100 on eBay; bag maker to match it

Ginger Littleton, who tried to stop Clay Duke from shooting her colleagues at a Florida school board meeting, recieved a winning bid of $13,100 for the bag on eBay. She is donating the money















A purse belonging to a school board official who last week tried to stop a gunman during a standoff at a Florida school board meeting sold for $13,100 on eBay Wednesday.

Ginger Littleton and a local television station in Bay County, Fla., said they will donate the money to a charity run by the security guard who shot gunman Clay Duke after Duke attempted to kill several school board members during a meeting in Panama City on Dec. 14.

Security guard Mike Jones's charity, Salvage Santa, fixes up bicycles and other toys and gives them to needy children during Christmas.

The winning bid was placed by a man in Alexandria, Va., who asked to remain anonymous.



Brahmin, the Massachusetts handbag company that made the purse, said they will match the bid, so Jones's charity will receive $26,200.

Littleton, 59, was hailed for her bravery after she snuck up behind Duke, 56, and swung the faux-crocodile bag at his hand in an attempted to knock the gun loose.

Her attempt failed, and Duke knocked her to the ground before allowing her to leave the room.

Duke later fired at the school officials but missed, and he was shot three times by Jones. As he lay on the floor wounded, Duke fired back at Jones and missed, and then shot and killed himself.

A video of the incident captured worldwide attention.

Littleton donated the bag to WJHG-TV last week after the station suggested auctioning it off for charity.

Ebay initially pulled the listing, saying it did not meet its listing for charitable fund-raising, but resumed the auction on Saturday afternoon after an anchor at the station rewrote it to meet the site's guidelines.

"I wasn't terribly attached to the purse," Littleton told CNN. "So anything I could to extend the purse to the lives of other people was a good idea."

While the auction was a windfall for Jones and perhaps brought closure to Littleton and the other school board members, Duke's family remains badly shaken by the incident.

In an emotional appearance on "The Early Show" on CBS Thursday morning, Duke's wife, Rebecca, called her husband a "family man" and said he wanted to scare the school board and didn't intend to kill anyone.

Rebecca Duke had been laid off from her job with the Panama City schools, and the family's money troubles apparently had pushed Clay Duke past his breaking point.

Duke said she was sorry for the members of the school board and for Jones. Her family, she said, was overwhelmed and devastated.

"I am really numb. I feel like I died that day," Duke said. "I feel my soul has been ripped out and I don't know how to get it back."

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