(Observer Network News) According to CNN, the Washington Post and other US media reports, on the morning of October 24, local time, a 19-year-old boy with a long gun and multiple large-capacity magazines entered a high school in Missouri, shot and killed a student and a teacher, and injured 7 students. The gunman was then shot and killed by the police who rushed to the scene.
One survivor reportedly heard the gunman say he was tired of everyone at the school. Another said the gunman shouted during the shooting: "You're all dead." ”
Screenshot of the Washington Post report
CNN reported Oct. 24 that the shooting occurred at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis, Missouri, which is located 6 miles southwest of downtown and has about 400 students. The gunman was Orlando Harris, 19, who graduated from the high school last year and had no criminal record.
At about 9 a.m. on the 24th, Harris entered the high school through a locked door with a spear and began his bloody massacre.
Student Keyshawn Brooks later told St. Louis City television station KSDK-TV that Harris forced his way into the classroom he was in, and "a man opened the door and said something like, 'You're all going to die today.'" ”
"He shot the teacher first, and she fell to the floor. Another boy had a gun in his hand, bleeding profusely. The other two girls were shot," Brooks said, "and as he left the room, we opened the window and jumped out." ”
Students fled the building in panic
As the gunshots rang out, David Williams, a math teacher at the school, recalled that everyone went into "drill mode," turning off lights, locking doors and huddling in corners to avoid being seen.
He told CNN that there was a bang on the classroom door and the door began to shake, "Somebody tried to open the door." Then sirens sounded in the distance, Williams heard three more gunshots, and a man screaming, "You're dead." Soon after, a bullet pierced a window in his classroom.
In an interview with the St. Louis Post, Williams also revealed that after the gunman entered the school, the principal immediately said a code word through the loudspeaker, indicating to the teachers and students of the school that there was a gunman in the teaching building.
When code words came from the loudspeaker, 15-year-old student Elijah Pohlman later recalled chaos. Polman said he was texting his parents at the time saying he loved them, then heard 4 gunshots and he could only run away in panic. While running out, Polman nearly bumped into a corpse in the hallway. "I didn't know how to deal with it, I was scared."
At the time of the shooting, 16-year-old Taniya Gholston was taking dance lessons. She told The St. Louis Post that she heard only two gunshots when she saw the gunman enter her classroom with a gun.
"I made eye contact with him, but I escaped because his gun got stuck." Survivor Goston also recalled hearing the gunman's muttering, "He said, 'I'm tired of this damn school,' 'I'm tired of everyone in this damn school.'" ’”
Police did not say how many shots the gunman Harris fired at the school or how Harris entered the school through the locked door, but St. Louis Police Chief Mike Sack acknowledged that the locked door delayed the suspect's movement and bought time for police.
Sark also said at a press conference on the evening of the 24th that the police responded quickly this time. According to him, at 9:11 a.m., the police received the first 911 call, and at 9:15 a.m., the police arrived at the school. At 9:23, police made contact with Harris, and after a 2-minute shootout, Harris was killed. According to Sach, police found the gunman carrying a long gun and about 12 magazines with 30 rounds of ammunition.
However, according to Sark, the shooting killed 2 people except the gunman, one of them a 61-year-old woman, who was pronounced dead in hospital, and another 16-year-old girl who died instantly. According to the St. Louis Post, the 61-year-old girl was a teacher at the high school named Jean Kuczka, and the 16-year-old who died was student Alexandria Bell.
Jean Kuzka and Alexandro Bell were killed in the shooting
Sack also said seven other teenagers were injured and taken to hospital. Some had gunshot wounds or abrasions, one of them had a broken ankle, and they were all in stable condition. Local police are currently investigating the cause of the shooting, and Sach mentioned that there is a suspicion that the gunman, Harris, suffers from some kind of mental illness.
Speaking to the media after the shooting, Missouri Congressman Cori Bush bluntly stated that "parents wake up every day praying that the shooting didn't happen at their child's school, and it didn't happen to their child." White House press secretary Jean-Pierre also condemned the school shooting as "senseless violence" at a press conference that day and asked Congress to take action to pass a ban on assault weapons "to stop the scourge of gun violence." ”
According to The Washington Post, Missouri law allows firearms to be carried openly or covertly without a permit or background check. Missouri has one of the highest gun death rates, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a nonprofit group, which called Missouri's gun legislation "terribly weak." The Washington Post also counted at least 33 school shootings in the United States this year.
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