A gunman opened fire at a St. Louis high school this morning, leaving at least two dead and seven wounded according to news reports.
The gunman was killed by police.
Here’s more via the Washington Post:
A man opened fire at a St. Louis high school Monday morning, leaving a teenage girl and an adult woman dead and several others wounded before being fatally wounded by police, according to school and police officials.
The shooting was reported shortly after 9 a.m. at the Central Visual and Performing Arts, a specialty high school of about 400 students known as CVPA, in the southwestern corner of the city. Police arrived a couple of minutes later to find students running from the building and reporting that the man had a long gun, according to Michael Sack, the St. Louis Police commissioner.
Police confronted the gunman, estimated to be about 20 years old, and exchanged gunfire with him, Sack said. He was taken to the hospital along with eight others, where he was pronounced dead. Police had not identified him late Monday morning local time.
One woman died at a hospital and a teen died at the scene. The wounded victims had a range of injuries from shrapnel and gunshots, Sack said.
“It’s terrible to think about,” the police commissioner said. “Here is a safe place where kids go to learn, to grow, to develop, and something like this happens. it’s just heartbreaking.”
I’m seeing some say that three are dead, but that may include the gunman.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the doors to the school were locked and security workers were present:
School doors were locked Monday morning and there were seven security workers on site, police said, but they would not indicate how the shooter got inside the building.
They also report on what witnesses heard during the shooting:
David Williams, a math teacher at the school, said the school principal came over the loudspeaker around 9 a.m. and said the code phrase that indicates a school shooter in the building. Williams heard multiple shots outside his classroom, and one of the windows on the classroom door was shot out. He then heard a man say, “You are all going to (expletive) die.”
Raymond J. Parks, a dance teacher at the school, said he was about to teach a ballet class when he saw a man wearing all black with a long gun out of the corner of his eye. Parks said the man pointed the gun at him but did not fire for some reason.
Nylah Jones, a ninth grader at the school, said she was in math class when the shooter fired into the room from the hallway but could not get into the classroom. Students piled into the corner of the room and tried not to move as the shooter banged on the door, she said.
Ryane Owens, 18, a senior at CVPA, said students “thought it was a drill at first. Then we heard noises.”
“Once you heard the boom,” said teacher Michael De Filippo, “all the chuckling and laughing in the back of the room stopped.”
Taniya Lumpkin was in speech and debate class at the time. She said a staff member told them to close and lock the door as they do for an intruder drill, but they “didn’t know if it was real or not.”
“Next thing you know, we just heard gunshots,” Taniya said. First single shots rang out, then multiple, then single again, she said.
Taniya Gholston, 16, another student at CVPA, said the shooter’s gun eventually jammed and that she did not recognize him. She said she heard him say something about being “sick of this damn school.”
Ja’miah Hampton, 16, was in vocal class on the fourth floor of the building when she heard gunshots on the third floor. “I heard one big one, and then there were so many I stopped counting,” she said. “I’m confused why people are so cruel.”
Dakota Willard, 14, who attends Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience — also housed in the CVPA building — said he saw a girl lying at the end of a hallway that joins the two schools.
“What I saw was traumatizing,” Willard said. “I’m OK. I don’t need any special help.”
What a horrible thing to have to go through.
We’ll have more on the shooter when police release the identity of the gunman.