School shooting took life of a ‘perfect sweet soul’

A county prosecutor sought to head off criticism from his traumatized community on Wednesday as he explained why a 15-year-old charged with murder in the shootings of two classmates doesn’t yet face attempted murder charges as well, even though more than a dozen other students have bullet wounds.

Instead, the preliminary charges for wounding the other classmates will be first-degree assault, Assistant Marshall County Attorney Jason Darnall said, stressing at a news conference that it carries the same penalty.

“The reason for that is based on information we have right now. Attempted murder is an offence which takes into account motive and specific intent,” but why he did it is still being investigated. Assault, on the other hand, simply requires a “serious physical injury by means of a dangerous instrument,” Darnall said.

The young man’s handgun was dangerous enough to kill two classmates, wound 14 other students and seriously injure four more as hundreds of teenagers scrambled to escape. All the victims were between 14 and 18 years old, Kentucky State Police Detective Jody Cash said.

Most ran silently, too stunned to shout. Some dashed into classrooms. Others fled the building, crossing streets and fields and sheltering in nearby businesses.

“No one screamed,” said 16-year-old Alexandria Caporali. “It was almost completely silent as people just ran.”

Bailey Nicole Holt and Preston Ryan Cope, both 15, were killed and another 18 people injured when a classmate opened fire Tuesday morning in the school’s commons, a busy atrium at the centre of Marshall County High School, where several hallways meet and children gather before classes.

The trauma consumed the rural town of about 4,300 people, where nearly everyone has a connection to the school.

Kentucky State Police Commissioner Rick Sanders said authorities would not yet identify the 15-year-old, now in police custody, who he said walked into school armed with a pistol and just before 8 a.m. and immediately started firing.

Caporali was eating breakfast in the cafeteria when she heard a shot, turned and saw the teenager with the gun. She knew him as a quiet boy who played music and always seemed happy. After the first shot, she said he seemed to hesitate, but then he fired every bullet in the gun.

“It was one right after another — bang, bang, bang, bang, bang,” she said, until he ran out of ammunition.

Then he took off running, trying to get away, she said. He was soon apprehended and led away in handcuffs.

But by then, more than a dozen had been shot and others were injured as they ran from the gunfire. Holt died at the scene and Cope died after being taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Five others remained in critical condition late Tuesday.

Secret Holt said her daughter Bailey was a “perfect sweet soul.”