[ad_1]
A gunman opened fire at a high school in the US state of Missouri, killing a woman and a teenage girl and wounding six others, officials said, amid a spate of deadly school shootings in America.
Monday morning’s attack at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis forced students to barricade doors, huddle in classroom corners, jump from windows and run out of the building.
One girl said she saw the shooter directly before his gun jammed.
Police Commissioner Michael Zack said at a news conference that the shooter was about 20 years old, but did not name him or the victims. Zack declined to say whether the woman killed was a teacher.
The gunman, who was wearing a “long gun,” was fatally wounded in a shootout with police officers who arrived at the school within two minutes of receiving a report of an active shooter, he said.
“Officers have started clearing the building to look for the shooter,” the police commissioner said. “Hearing the gunshots, they ran toward the gunfire, found the shooter, and engaged in the firefight.”
Our department responded to an active shooter incident this morning at Central VP School. One suspect was taken into custody.
Until further notice S. We ask members of the public to please avoid the area from Kingshighway South West to the Armory. This investigation is ongoing.
— St. Louis, MO Police (@SLMPD) October 24, 2022
Six others were hospitalized with gunshot and shrapnel wounds, Zack said. He did not give any information about their conditions.
“On paper we may have nine victims, … we have hundreds of others,” Zack said. “Everybody who survives this is going to hit home.”
The US has seen a series of deadly school shootings in recent months, renewing the nationwide debate on gun control and calling for Congress to make it more difficult for young people to buy guns.
One of the deadliest incidents of violence in May, when a gunman killed 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas, drew widespread condemnation of the local law enforcement response.
In the Uvalde attack, police and other law enforcement officials were chastised for waiting more than an hour before confronting the gunman, who was locked inside a classroom full of students and teachers. The accused in that case entered the school building through an unlocked door.
On Monday, St. Louis Schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams said seven security guards were at the school at the time of the shooting, each at a locked building entrance.
One of the guards noticed the man trying to get through the locked door, but couldn’t. The guard notified school officials and made sure to contact police, Zack said.
Tanya Golston, a 16-year-old student, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that she was in a room where the shooter entered.
“All I heard was two shots and he came in there with a gun,” Gholston said. “I tried to run and I couldn’t run. He and I made eye contact, but I avoided it because his gun was jammed. But we saw blood on the floor.
Ninth-grader Nyla Jones told the Post-Dispatch that she was in math class when the shooter opened fire into the room from the hallway. As the students huddled in a corner, the shooter was unable to enter the room and knocked on the door, she said.
Janay Douglas’ 15-year-old daughter was trapped in the hallway when the school went into lockdown. Douglas said she received a call from her daughter telling her she heard gunshots.
“One of her friends broke down the door,” Douglas said. “He was shot in the arm and then she and her friends started running. The phone is disconnected. I was on my way. “
The shooting also shocked St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones. “Our kids shouldn’t have to go through this,” Jones said at a news conference.
“They don’t have to go through active shooter drills if something happens, which unfortunately happened today.”
Central Visual and Performing Arts High School is a magnet school specializing in the visual, musical and performing arts and has about 400 students.
[ad_2]
Source link
