Bouquets of flowers and balloons and handmade signs now stand guard at the crosswalk where Johnny Richmond guides students and parents across the street.
Richmond, commonly known as Mr. Penny, works as a crossing guard and custodian for Auburn City Schools, was admitted to East Alabama Medical Center Monday morning with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
People can hardly believe the news about this smile-giving, push-up-doing, die-hard Auburn fan.
"It was very shocking to everybody at school," said Auburn High School 10th-grader Jessica Samford. "We was running back and forth, trying to see if it was true or not."
Samford is one of many students who cross Richmond's crosswalk at the intersection of Dean Road and Samford Avenue. Another student, Hobson Streetman, 10th grade, said he couldn't believe the news that Richmond had been hospitalized.
"Knowing why he was there--it just doesn't make sense to me," Streetman said.
The disbelief comes as a result of Richmond's positive attitude.
"If I was starting off the day kind of low, he would always lift you up just by his attitude," said Streetman, who described Richmond as "always happy." "He really changed people's lives that way."
As of Wednesday afternoon, EAMC reported Richmond's condition as still critical.
Attempts to reach Richmond's family were unsuccessful.
Richmond gained notoriety in the community not only as a crossing guard, but as a staunch Auburn fan, demonstrated by his rigorous push-up routine at games: 50 for every touchdown, extra point, field goal and safety; 25 for every sack and 20 for every first down, as reported in a previous article by The Auburn Plainsman.
"He was," Samford said before stopping herself. "He is still the greatest of all time."
The Auburn community banded together last year to buy Richmond a ticket to the BCS National Championship game. Now, the community is coming together again in the hopes that Richmond will recover.
Police arrived at Richmond's home at approximatley 10:30 a.m. Monday. According to the Opelika-Auburn News, his failure to arrive for work was what alerted school officials to a possible problem.
Auburn citizens were thrown into a state of confusion when social media outlets began to report Richmond as being dead instead of injured.
As news of Richmond's condition continued to unfold, a conversation between EAMC and superintendent of Auburn schools Terry Jenkins led to a press conference in which Richmond was mistakenly reported dead.
After the incident, John Atkinson, public relations at EAMC, issued a statement confirming Richmond was still alive, and the misinformation was "not a clinical mistake, but rather an honest misunderstanding."
Atkinson said EAMC issued an apology to Richmond's family following the release of the inaccurate information.
*Content has been changed from original publication.
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