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NOBLESVILLE, Ind. (CBS) -- Eyewitnesses to a school shooting in a suburb north of Indianapolis are calling Jason Seaman a hero after he stopped a gunman.

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Students ran to waiting buses after police say a student opened fire inside a classroom Friday morning at Noblesville West Middle School.

Investigators say the gunman asked to be excused from class, then returned with two handguns and opened fire.

Seaman, a science teacher at the school and a former defensive linebacker for Southern Illinois University, threw a basketball at the gunman and tackled him to the ground.

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Seaman and a female student, Ella Whistler, are hospitalized with gunshot wounds.