School gunman had AR-15-style weapon, 600 rounds of ammo - The Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A 19-year-old who killed a teacher and a 15-year-old miss astatine a St. Louis precocious schoolhouse was equipped with an AR-15-style firearm and what appeared to beryllium much than 600 rounds of ammunition, a constabulary authoritative said Tuesday.

Orlando Harris besides near down a handwritten enactment offering his mentation for the shooting Monday astatine Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, St. Louis Police Commissioner Michael Sack told reporters. Tenth-grader Alexzandria Bell and 61-year-old carnal acquisition teacher Jean Kuczka died and 7 students were wounded earlier constabulary killed Harris successful an speech of gunfire.

Sack work Harris’ enactment successful which the young antheral lamented that helium had nary friends, nary family, nary woman and a beingness of isolation. Harris called it the “perfect tempest for a wide shooter.”

Sack said Harris had ammunition strapped to his thorax and successful a bag, and that further 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 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 graduated from the schoolhouse past year. 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.”

Alexzandria was a bright, charismatic miss with a sassy property who was moving hard to amended her dancing and her grades, said Central’s principal, Kacy Seals-Shahid. She was a subordinate of the school’s inferior varsity creation team, her begetter said.

“Alexzandria was my everything,” her father, Andre Bell, told KSDK-TV. “She was joyful, fantastic and conscionable a large person.”

“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,” helium said.

The greeting of the shooting, Alexzandria’s ma brought her daughter’s glasses to the schoolhouse erstwhile she noticed the teen had near them home. Her ma got to the schoolhouse earlier Alexzandria arrived by schoolhouse bus.

“When Alex got disconnected her bus, I asked her, `Aren’t you going to request these due to the fact that you can’t spot without those?” Seals-Shahid said. “The household was ace supportive of Alexzandria.”

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. 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. All were listed successful unchangeable condition.

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 had 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 anyway. 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: 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 floor, 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 of 19 children and 2 teachers astatine Robb Elementary School successful Uvalde, Texas, successful May.

Matt Davis, president of the St. Louis Board of Education, said constabulary and schoolhouse officials acted rapidly to Monday’s shooting.

“And yet, we are inactive near with tragedy,” Davis said.

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.

Ashley Rench said she was teaching precocious algebra to sophomores erstwhile she heard a large bang. Then the schoolhouse intercom announced, “Miles Davis is successful the building.”

“That’s our codification for intruder,” Rench said.

The gunman tried the doorway of the schoolroom but did not unit his mode in, she said. When constabulary officers started banging, she wasn’t definite astatine archetypal if it truly was instrumentality enforcement until she was capable to glimpse retired and spot officers.

“Let’s go!” she told the kids.

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Salter reported from O’Fallon, Missouri. Associated Press writers Margaret Stafford and Heather Hollingsworth successful Kansas City, Missouri, contributed to this report.

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This communicative has been corrected to amusement that Alexzandria Bell was 15, not 16 arsenic constabulary had antecedently stated. Police besides corrected the spelling of her archetypal name.