Armed student killed by police at Knoxville school
A student opened fire on officers responding to a report of a possible gunman at a Tennessee high school Monday. Police shot back, killing him, authorities said.
The shooting wounded an officer and comes as the community reels from offcampus gun violence that has left three other students dead this year.
Police found the student in a bathroom at AustinEast Magnet High School in Knoxville, about 180 miles east of Nashville, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch said at a news conference. They ordered the student to come out, but he wouldn’t comply, and that’s when he reportedly opened fire, Rausch said. Police fired back.
The student died at the school, and the injured officer was taken into surgery after being shot at least once in the upper leg, authorities said. The officer was expected to recover, and no one else was hurt.
It wasn’t yet clear why the student brought a gun to school or why he fired at officers.
“It’s a sad day for Knoxville, and it’s tough for AustinEast,” Rausch said.
The shooting comes as more classrooms are reopening to students after months of remote learning during the coronavirus pandemic, which cut down the number of mass killings in the U.S. The nation has seen a series of mass shootings in recent weeks, including eight people killed at three Atlantaarea massage businesses on March 16 and 10 people killed at a Colorado supermarket on March 22.
Knox County Schools restarted inperson learning in January, but AustinEast Magnet High School went back to virtual instruction briefly in February after the spate of shooting deaths of students. The school will be closed again Tuesday and Wednesday.
Speaking outside a hospital, Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon told news station WATETV that she spoke with the wounded officer and he was conscious and in good spirits.
Kincannon, a former Knox County Schools board president, spoke at a February press conference about the gun violence that took the lives of three AustinEast students less than three weeks apart this year. Two of the victims were 15, and the other was 16.
“I know that school is a safe place,” Kincannon said at that time, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel. “The issues with violence are happening in the community, and it’s affecting kids when they’re outside of the school. That’s why we are focusing our efforts to protect the innocent, protect the school, protect the children and students and staff.”
Last week, Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed legislation that will make Tennessee the latest state to allow most adults 21 and older to carry handguns — openly or concealed — without first clearing a background check and training.
When asked previously whether recent mass shootings in Georgia, Colorado and other locations gave him any concern, Lee said the increased penalties mean that “we in fact will be strengthening laws that would help prevent gun crimes in the future.”