A gunman shouting “You’re all going to f—ing die!” opened fire at a St. Louis, Missouri, high school Monday, killing a student and a teacher and wounding seven others before being shot dead by cops, according to reports.
The male suspect, later identified by police as 19-year-old Orlando Harris, entered Central Visual & Performing Arts High at about 9 a.m. through a locked door with a long gun and began his bloody massacre, officials said at a Monday afternoon news conference.
“He shot the teacher first. She fell to the floor. Another boy got shot in the hand and he was bleeding. Two other girls got shot,” student Keyshawn Brooks told KSDK-TV. “When he left the room, we opened the window and we jumped out.”
Teen student Alexandria Bell, 15, was pronounced dead at the scene and the adult victim — identified as physical education teacher Jean Kuczka, 61 — died at the hospital, police said. Seven other people — all teenagers — were being treated for gunshot and shrapnel wounds at a local hospital, according to officials.
When the gunman entered Kuczka’s classroom, she stood in front of the shooter to shield her students, her daughter was reportedly told by authorities.
“My mom loved kids,” her daughter Abigail Kuczka told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of her mom, who had taught at the school since 2008. “She loved her students. I know her students looked at her like she was their mom because a lot of them didn’t have a good home life.
Teen student Alexis Bell was killed during the shooting.
Bell’s mother was frantically searching for her daughter outside the school Monday. She told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that her daughter’s phone pinged from inside the school and that she hadn’t heard from her.
“I have no clue what happened, but I just know my daughter is missing,” Keisha Acres said. “I can’t find her. She’s not answering her phone. It’s going straight to voicemail. Everybody’s leaving, and my baby is not found.”
The 15-year-old’s death was later confirmed by her father, who lives in Los Angeles.
“It’s a nightmare,” Andre Bell told local NBC affiliate KSDK.
“Alexandria was my everything. She was joyful, wonderful and just a great person,” he told the station. “She was the girl I loved to see and loved to hear from. No matter how I felt, I could always talk to her and it was all right. That was my baby.”
Math teacher David Williams told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the principal came over the loudspeaker and said the code word that indicates a shooter is in the building.
At least three were killed, including the shooter, in the attack. APWilliams heard gunfire outside his classroom, where one of the windows on the door was shot out. He told CNN that he heard a man saying, “You are all going to f–king die.”
Brooks said he saw the gunman shoot his teacher and three classmates after he breached the classroom, according to KSDK-TV.
“They had shot our classroom door down and a man opened the door and he was like, ‘Y’all are going to die today,’” Brooks told the news station.
Another student told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch she and the gunman came eye to eye when he entered the room she was in.
“All I heard was two shots and he came in there with a gun,” 16-year-old Taniya Gholston said. “And I was trying to run and I couldn’t run.
“Me and him made eye contact but I made it out because his gun got jammed. But we saw blood on the floor.”
She also said she heard him say something about being “tired of this damn school,” the Post-Dispatch reported.
The gunman shouted “You’re all going to die!” as he opened fire on campus, authorities and witnesses said. APThe school had seven security guards at the time of the incident, each one posted at a door, said St. Louis Schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams.
The suspect was able to get through the school’s locked doors, entered the building with a long gun around 9:10 a.m. and began shooting in a third-story classroom, said St. Louis Police Commissioner Mike Sack, who acknowledged the gunman’s struggle with the locked doors “bought us time.” However, he could not say how the attacker got through the door.
He said security officials were able to quickly alert cops, who arrived within minutes. The officers entered the school with “no hesitation” and engaged the suspect with gunfire.
At another press conference Monday evening, Sack said there was a report of an active shooter at the high school at 9:11 a.m., with officers arriving at 9:15 a.m.
The suspect’s identity and condition were not immediately available. Fox2NowPolice began engaging with Harris at 9:23 a.m. and he was reported down by 9:25 a.m., Sack said.
“This is a heartbreaking day for all of us. It’s gonna be tough. While on paper we may have nine victims, eight that were transported, one that remains, we have hundreds of others,” Sack told reporters earlier in the day.
“Everyone who survived this is going to take on trauma. Even the officers who responded here and the firefighters, the paramedics who worked on people here, are going to experience some degree of trauma,” Sack said.
“It’s terrible to think about. Here is the same place where kids go to learn, to grow, to develop, and something like this happens. It’s just heartbreaking.”
The St. Louis police response time comes after police officers in Uvalde, Texas, took 77 minutes to respond to the elementary school shooting there that killed 19 students and two teachers in May.
Sack added that while the probe is ongoing, there is suspicion that Harris was suffering from mental illness.
The gunman had nearly a dozen high-capacity magazines of ammunition with him, Sack said.
Ninth-grader Nylah Jones told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that she was in math class when the gunman fired into the room from the hallway. Students gathered in one corner of the classroom and tried not to move as the shooter banged on the door, she said.
When they went into lockdown, the children didn’t think it was for a real shooting, she said.
Police officers were seen helping the fleeing students scale fences. Fox2NowSenior Taniya Lumpkin was in speech and debate class when a staffer told them to lock the door, but they “didn’t know if it was real or not.”
“Next thing you know, we just heard gunshots,” Nylah said. “First single shots rang out, then multiple, then single again.”
Teacher Michael De Filippo told the paper: “Once you heard the boom, all the chuckling and laughing in the back of the room stopped.”
Ja’miah Hampton, also 16, was in vocal class on the fourth floor when she heard gunshots on the third floor.
“I heard one big one, and then there were so many I stopped counting,” she told the paper. “I’m confused — why people are so cruel?”
One student saw a young girl lying on the floor. Fox2NowDakota Willard, 14, who attends the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience in the same building, said he saw a girl lying on the floor.
“What I saw was traumatizing,” Willard said, adding, “I’m OK. I don’t need any special help.”
Parents were notified to go to Gateway STEM at 5191 McRee Ave. to reunite with their kids.
A boy was seen consoling his mother later.
“I’m glad it’s over. My friends are alive. It’s OK, Mom, it’s OK, I’m here,” he said.
With Post wires
