A teenage male student was killed and a police officer wounded in a shooting on Monday at a Knoxville, Tennessee high school. The school, Austin-East magnet, will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday, according to police, who say the scene is secure.
Authorities were first called to the scene between three and four on Monday.
Multiple agencies are on the scene of a shooting at Austin-East Magnet High School. Multiple gunshot victims reported, including a KPD officer. The investigation remains active at this time. Please avoid the area. pic.twitter.com/ViQirnQSpx
— Knoxville Police TN (@Knoxville_PD) April 12, 2021
Sources tell Knoxville local media that at least one person has been “detained” in the incident. The suspected shooter engaged officers who responded to the scene, and was subsequently killed after wounding one officer, according to an NBC report.
As it turns out, and despite the initial reactions and misinformation on Twitter, this was NOT a “mass” shooting. Nor is this an isolated incident. A Twitter (sorry) thread from a Knoxville reporter, Travis Dorman, includes some important context.
I've already seen some misinformation about Austin-East High School. While my colleagues work to confirm more details about today's shooting, I'm going to run through some facts about the gun violence that's been affecting the city and the school communityhttps://t.co/qj2WgCaXSV
— Travis Dorman (@travdorman) April 12, 2021
Four current or recent Austin-East High School students, all Black teens, have lost their lives to gun violence this year. Those teens were killed in four separate shootings across six weeks from late January to mid-March.
None of those shootings occurred on school grounds.
— Travis Dorman (@travdorman) April 12, 2021
Four current or recent Austin-East High School students, all Black teens, have lost their lives to gun violence this year. Those teens were killed in four separate shootings across six weeks from late January to mid-March.
None of those shootings occurred on school grounds.
— Travis Dorman (@travdorman) April 12, 2021
The rate of shootings here recently — especially shootings of kids — is not normal for Knoxville.
Fatal shootings spiked in many cities last year. Knoxville saw 37 criminal homicides in 2020, its highest annual figure in decades.
No victim was under 18.https://t.co/oETi72fPVc
— Travis Dorman (@travdorman) April 12, 2021
The numbers are high so far this year, too, and now children are dying.
Since the beginning of 2017, according to my data, a total of five people under 18 have been killed in shootings within Knoxville city limits.
Four of those five shootings have happened this year.
— Travis Dorman (@travdorman) April 12, 2021
The first happened Jan. 27. His name was Justin Taylor. He was 15 years old.
He died after being shot inside a vehicle at night, not close to the school. Police said it was accidental. Investigators quickly arrested a 17-year-old boy on a charge of criminally negligent homicide.
— Travis Dorman (@travdorman) April 12, 2021
Now, it’s clear from this reporter’s general tone that he’s suggesting GUNS are the problem. But as we know, guns aren’t and in fact cannot be the root cause of this increase in violence.
So what IS going on in Knoxville? Why are young people in the city shooting one another? Police have previously said there was no obvious connection between the cases, but that’s not 100% accurate. There may be no direct evidence link, but the obvious pattern is kids being shot by other kids.
Justin Taylor, a 15-year-old Austin-East student, died Jan. 27 after police say a 17-year-old boy accidentally shot him while they both were inside a car. Investigators quickly arrested the 17-year-old on a charge of criminally negligent homicide.
Another teenager, 16-year-old Stanley Freeman Jr., was fatally shot on Tarleton Avenue while driving home from school on Feb. 12. Two teenage boys, ages 14 and 16, have been charged with fatally shooting him.
Janaria Muhammad, a 15-year-old freshman at Austin-East, was found shot outside the home where she lived on Selma Avenue, on Feb. 16.
Jamarion “Lil Dada” Gillette, 15, died after being shot March 9. A woman found him wounded on Cherokee Trail in South Knoxville, near the University of Tennessee Medical Center, and took the teen to that hospital. He died there early on March 10.
Liberals want to blame these deaths on the inanimate object used. That won’t do anything to address underlying problems in the city. Or even identify those problems.
But maybe the don’t want a solution. Or just don’t want to know the real causes of teen violence.