A teenager who broke into his former high school in St Louis early this morning (Monday, October 25) shot eight people, killing two, before being shot dead by police.
According to reports, the gunman stormed into Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in the city, shouting, “You are all going to die!” before fatally shooting a teacher and a teenage girl. He wounded six others before police killed him in an exchange of gunfire. The shooting happened just after 9am when the gunman, named as Orlando Harris, forced students to barricade doors and huddle in classroom corners, or to jump from windows and run out of the building to safety.
Police Chief Michael Sack told reporters at the scene that quick thinking by a security guard and police officers who “ran to the gunfire” helped end the shooting before more people were killed or injured. Harris graduated from the school just last year. Police said they did not yet have a motive, adding it was unclear if anyone had been targeted specifically. The 19-year-old had no prior criminal history.
Although the victims have yet to be named, the St Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper said they had identified the dead teacher as Jean Kuczka. Her daughter said her mother died when she jumped between the gunman and her students in her classroom.
“My mom loved kids,” Abbey Kuczka told the newspaper. “She loved her students. I know her students looked at her like she was their mom.” TV reports said officers entered the area with guns drawn shortly after 9am. Crime tape was placed around the school and parents were directed to another school building to reunite with their children.
According to the Associated Press news agency, Kelvin Adams, a St Louis Schools Superintendent, said seven security guards were at the school at the time of the attack, each stationed at an entrance of the locked building. One of the guards noticed the gunman trying to get in at a locked door. The guard notified school officials, who contacted police.
“It was that timely response by that security officer, the fact that the door did cause pause for the suspect, that bought us some time,” Mr Sack said. He did not say how the man eventually got inside. Central Visual and Performing Arts shares a building with another school, the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience. Police at the scene said the injured people suffered gunshot or shrapnel wounds. No further details were immediately released.
Student Taniya Gholston, 16, told reporters: "All I heard was two shots and he came in there with a gun. I was trying to run and I couldn’t run. Me and him made eye contact but I made it out because his gun got jammed. But we saw blood on the floor.”
Another student, Nylah Jones, said she was in maths class when the gunman fired into the room from the hallway. The gunman was unable to get into the room and banged on the door as students piled into a corner, she said.
Teacher Raymond Parks was about to teach a dance class for juniors when a man dressed in black approached. At first, Parks thought he was carrying a broom but then realised it was a gun. “The kids started screaming and running and scrambling. He walked directly into the two doors and pointed the gun over at me because I was in the front,” Mr Parks said.
For some reason, Mr Parks said, the gunman pointed the gun away from him and let Mr Parks and the dozen or so students leave the room. “That’s what I don’t understand. He let me go,” Mr Parks said.
For stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.
