In a shooting at a high school in St. Louis, Missouri, two people—a student and a teacher—were killed. The shooter was later put to death by police.
Additionally, seven people were hurt in the attack on Central Visual & Performing Arts High School on Monday, and additional students reported tight escapes.
A 19-year-old former student has been identified as the shooter.
He reportedly had an AR-15-style rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammo on him, according to the police.
Alexandria Bell, a student, and Jean Kuczka, a 61-year-old physical education instructor, were named as the two victims.
According to local media, all seven injured—three girls and four boys—had non-life-threatening wounds.
Police continue to look into possible motives. According to authorities, the shooter sought to justify the shooting with a handwritten note that was left at the site and made mention of his sadness.
According to St. Louis Police Chief Michael Sack on Tuesday, the shooter had more than 600 rounds with him. Some were found in a sack or had been abandoned in the school’s stairwells, while others were discovered strapped to his chest.
He added that he urged people to come forward if they knew of anyone experiencing mental instability or who was talking about “bringing harm to others,” adding that “this could have been lot worse.”
Currently aiding the probe are FBI agents.
Students were forced to barricade classrooms during the attack, jump from windows, and flee the structure.
One student reported that the assailant approached a friend and asked, “You ready to die?” to the local television station KMOV.
“We just fled really, really fast,” Raven Terry recalled, “and we were just crying, all freaked up by it.”
Taniya Gholston, 16, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the shooter had tried to shoot her in her classroom.
She added, “I tried to run, but I couldn’t run. We exchanged looks, but I managed to get away because his rifle jammed.
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She claimed to have heard the assailant utter the phrase “I’m tired of this damn school.”
The shooter, according to the police, graduated from the institution last year and had no prior criminal activity.
According to a biography found online, one of the fatalities, Jean Kuczka, was a grandmother to seven children and had been a teacher at the school since 2008.
Abigail Kuczka, her daughter, told the Post-Dispatch that “my mom loved kids” and said that she had passed away defending her pupils.
Only one month separated the second victim, 15-year-old Alexandria Bell, from becoming 16.
According to her father, Andre Bell, “My daughter was planning on travelling out here to California to spend her birthday with me.” However, we now need to organise her burial.
All seven of the students who were hurt in the incident are either 15 or 16 years old, and their conditions are stable.
Mr Sack reported that one allegedly broke an ankle after jumping from a third-floor window, while two others sustained bruising. Four people sustained bullet or grazing wounds.
At a press conference following the shooting, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones said, “Our children shouldn’t have to witness this.”
“They shouldn’t have to practise for active shooter situations just in case. And, regrettably, it occurred today.”
According to data from the Education Week publication, this year has already seen at least 35 school shootings in which at least one person has been killed or injured.
Following a shooting rampage at his high school in November of last year, a youngster in Michigan entered a guilty plea to 24 crimes, including terrorism and first-degree murder.
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