Three dead, including shooter, in St Louis school mass attack as students describe gunman’s chilling words
Two people were killed in a mass shooting at a high school in Missouri, police said.
The violence took place shortly after 9am at Central VPA High School in St Louis, the St Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Lt Colonel Michael Sack said that police located the shooter, a 20-year-old male, minutes after shots were reported and that he was fatally shot by officers after engaging in gunfire.
Eight victims who sustained injuries ranging from gunshot wounds to cardiac arrest were transported to a hospital. An adult woman and a female student, whose body is still inside the building, have been pronounced dead.
Investigators on the scene have located the gunman’s car and are searching it for evidence. A bomb squad is assisting the search.
Mr Sack said that the school was locked, and seven security guards were at the scene at the time of the shooting. Law enforcement knows the shooter’s relationship with the school but that information is not being released yet, Mr Sack said.
A student also told KMOV-TV that they were in a dance class when a male with a “long gun” stormed inside the room and asked, “Are you ready to die?”
Another student, 16-year-old Taniya Gholston, recounted the moments of fear as she made eye contact with the gunman.
“All I heard was two shots and he came in there with a gun,” Ms Gholston told the Post-Dispatch.
“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.”
“Having to be here is heartbreaking as a mother,” St Louis Tishaura Jones said at the scene. “My son [called and] said, “Mommy, you sound stressed.” I’m stressed and I’m heartbroken. Heartbroken for these families who send their children to school hoping they [are] safe.”
Disturbing videos and images from the scene show law enforcement helping students come out of the building and escape the violence.
Several students told the Post-Dispatch they first thought it was a drill, but later heard the principal say the code word for a shooting. Once they realised the magnitude of the threat, students jumped out of windows or cornered inside their classrooms.
“Once you heard the boom,” Michael De Filippo, a teacher at Central VPA told the Post-Dispatch. “All the chuckling and laughing in the back of the room stopped.”
Teens are being transported in buses to a safe area in Gateway STEM High School, where they are being reunited with their parents.
All the schools in the St Louis public school district were put on a “hard lockdown.” School officials said that counselors will be made available for teens in every school.
The FBI and state authorities have joined the investigation.
This is a developing story ... check again for updates.
