School shooting
Student gunman injures two teens in Maryland attack
GREAT MILLS, Maryland — In the latest school shooting in the United States, the gunfire was over and done with in less than a minute.
This time the shooter, a 17-year-old student, was killed. A 16-year-old girl, who authorities said had some type of relationship with the shooter, was critically injured and a 14-year-old boy was also wounded. And the school resource officer who responded inside of 60 seconds and fired off a shot at the attacker was praised as a hero.
Tuesday’s shooting erupted at Great Mills High School in southern Maryland, about 100 kilometers south of US capital Washington. It came a month after 17 people were killed at a Florida high school, and intensified calls for Congress to act on gun violence at schools.
It wasn’t immediately clear in Tuesday’s attack whether the shooter — identified as Austin Rollins, a student at Great Mills — took his own life or was killed by the officer’s bullet, St. Mary’s County Sheriff Tim Cameron said. But Cameron credited the officer with preventing any more loss of life.
The officer, Deputy First Class Blaine Gaskill, a six-year veteran in his first year at the high school, responded quickly, Cameron said. Within a minute after Rollins fired his first shot, Gaskill had responded and fired a shot of his own. Cameron said Gaskill fired his weapon simultaneously with a final shot fired by Rollins. Cameron said he did not know whether Rollins was intending to shoot himself or Gaskins.
“He had to cover significant ground,” Cameron said of Gaskill’s response. “The premise is simple: You go to the sound of gunfire.”
Authorities didn’t release a motive, but said they believe the girl and Rollins previously had a relationship. It wasn’t clear how the 14-yearold boy was wounded.
Gaskill, who doubles as a SWAT team member, was unharmed.
Police did not identify the victims, but the family of 16-year-old Jaelynn Willey, a sophomore at Great Mills, confirmed she had been shot.
Jaelynn is one of nine siblings, according to a statement from the family, and a member of the swim team.
In this case, it appeared Rollins possessed the gun illegally. In Maryland, a person must be 21 to possess a handgun, unless carrying one is required for employment. It’s unclear how Rollins obtained the weapon.
On Tuesday, students who survived last month’s shooting in Florida participated in a panel discussion at Harvard about the social movement they’ve started calling in part for tougher gun restrictions.
They said they’re expecting more than 1 million people to participate in marches on Saturday in Washington and in other parts of the country calling for tougher regulations.
James Scott Smith, superintendent of schools in St. Mary’s County, called Tuesday’s shooting “our worst fear”. He and other authorities said there were no obvious warning signs that Rollins posed a danger.
“If you don’t think this can happen at your school, you are sadly mistaken,” he said.