Sack said Harris had immoderate ammo strapped to his chest, immoderate successful a bag, and different magazines were recovered dumped successful stairwells.
“This could person been overmuch worse,” Sack said.
The onslaught forced students to barricade doors and huddle successful schoolroom corners, leap from windows and tally retired of the gathering to question safety. One terrorized miss said she was eye-to-eye with the shooter earlier his weapon seemingly jammed and she was capable to tally out. Several radical wrong the schoolhouse said they heard Harris warn, “You are each going to die!”
Harris, 19, graduated from the schoolhouse past year. The FBI was assisting constabulary successful the investigation. Sack, speaking astatine a quality conference, urged radical to travel guardant erstwhile idiosyncratic who appears to endure from intelligence unwellness oregon distress begins “speaking astir purchasing firearms oregon causing harm to others.”
Relatives of those killed mourned their losses.
“Alexzandria was my everything,” her father, Andre Bell, told KSDK-TV. “She was joyful, fantastic and conscionable a large person.”
Alexzandria was outgoing, loved to creation and was a subordinate of the school’s inferior varsity creation team, her begetter said.
“She was the miss I loved to spot and loved to perceive from. No substance however I felt, I could ever speech to her and it was alright. That was my baby,” Andre Bell said.
Abby Kuczka said her parent was killed erstwhile the gunman burst into her schoolroom and she moved betwixt him and her students.
“My ma loved kids,” Abbey Kuczka told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “She loved her students. I cognize her students looked astatine her similar she was their mom.”
The 7 injured students are each 15 oregon 16 years old. All were listed successful unchangeable condition. Sack said 4 suffered gunshot oregon graze wounds, 2 had bruises and 1 had a breached ankle — seemingly from jumping retired of the three-story building.
The schoolhouse successful southbound St. Louis was locked, with 7 information guards astatine the doors, St. Louis Schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams said. A information defender initially became alarmed erstwhile helium saw Harris trying to get successful 1 of the doors. He was equipped with a weapon and “there was nary enigma astir what was going to happen. He had it retired and entered successful an aggressive, convulsive manner,” Sack said.
That defender alerted schoolhouse officials and made definite constabulary were contacted.
Harris managed to get wrong anyhow — Sack declined to accidental how, saying helium didn’t privation to “make it easy” for anyone other who wants to interruption into a school.
Police offered this timeline of events: A 911 telephone came successful astatine 9:11 a.m. alerting constabulary of an progressive shooter. Officers — immoderate off-duty wearing thoroughfare apparel — arrived astatine 9:15 a.m.
Police located Harris astatine 9:23 a.m. connected the 3rd level of the school, wherever helium had barricaded himself wrong a classroom. Police said successful a quality merchandise that erstwhile Harris changeable astatine officers, they changeable backmost and broke done the door.
At 9:25 a.m., erstwhile Harris pointed his firearm astatine police, they fired respective shots. He was secured by constabulary astatine 9:32 a.m.
Police said Alexzandria was recovered successful a hallway and died astatine the scene. Kuczka was recovered successful a schoolroom and died astatine a hospital.
Central Visual and Performing Arts shares a gathering with different magnet school, Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience. Central has 383 students, Collegiate 336.
It was the 40th schoolhouse shooting this twelvemonth resulting successful injuries oregon death, according to a tally by Education Week — the astir successful immoderate twelvemonth since it began tracking shootings successful 2018. The deadly attacks see the killings astatine Robb Elementary School successful Uvalde, Texas, successful May, erstwhile 19 children and 2 teachers died. Monday’s St. Louis shooting came connected the aforesaid time a Michigan teen pleaded blameworthy to coercion and first-degree execution successful a schoolhouse shooting that killed 4 students successful December 2021.
For now, the survivors are dealing with the trauma.
The gunman pointed his limb astatine Raymond Parks, a creation teacher astatine the school, but did not sprout him, Parks said. The kids successful his people escaped extracurricular and Parks stopped postulation and get idiosyncratic to telephone the police. They came quickly.
“You couldn’t person asked for better,” Parks said of the constabulary response.
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