Gunman kills student
Victims’ classmate in custody, authorities in Washington say.
ROCKFORD, Wash. — A student opened fire at a high school in a tiny town in Washington state Wednesday, killing a classmate and injuring three others before being stopped by a staff member, authorities said.
The suspect, whom a classmate described as being obsessed with previous school shootings, was taken into custody. The wounded victims were expected to survive, officials said.
The shooter took two weapons to Freeman High School in Rockford, south of Spokane, but the first one he tried to fire jammed, Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich told reporters.
“He went to his next weapon,” Knezovich said. “A student walked up to him, engaged him, and that student was shot. That student did not survive.”
The sheriff said the shooter fired more rounds down the hallway, striking the other students, before a school employee could stop him. Knezovich called it a courageous act that prevented further bloodshed.
Elisa Vigil, a 14-year-old freshman, said she saw a male student shot in the head and whom janitors covered with a cloth, and a female student wounded in the back.
Michael Harper, a 15-yearold sophomore, said that earlier in the school year the suspect had taken to school with him notes saying he was going to do “something stupid” and might get killed or jailed. Some students alerted counselors, the teen said, but it wasn’t clear what school officials did in response.
A call to the school was not immediately returned.
Students said the shooter was armed with a pistol and rifle and had carried a duffel bag to school. After shots were fired, students went running and screaming down the hallways, Harper said.
The shooter had many friends and wasn’t bullied, Harper said, calling him “nice and funny and weird” and a huge fan of the TV show Breaking Bad. He also said the suspect was obsessed with other school shootings.
Authorities didn’t release the suspect’s identity or a possible motive. The victims also were not named.
Luis Prito, an assistant football coach at Freeman High, called the shooting devastating. A vigil was held Wednesday evening at a nearby church.
“This is a real close-knit community,” he said.
After the shooting, a twolane road into the community of about 500 people near the Idaho border was clogged with vehicles. Some people abandoned their cars on the street to make it to their children.
Cheryl Moser said her son, a freshman at Freeman High School, called her from a classroom after hearing shots fired.
“He called me and said, ‘Mom, there are gunshots.’ He sounded so scared. I’ve never heard him like that,” Moser told The Spokesman-Review newspaper. “You never think about something happening like this at a small school.”
Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Children’s Hospital received three pediatric patients, spokesman Nicole Stewart said. They were in stable condition and surrounded by family, she said.
Gov. Jay Inslee said in a statement that “all Washingtonians are thinking of the victims and their families, and are grateful for the service of school staff and first responders working to keep our students safe.”