Officer confronts student shooter
Gunman killed after injuring two Maryland high school students
LEXINGTON PARK, Md. — When the commotion about someone with a gun began Tuesday, Isiah Tichenor, 18, stepped into the hallway at Great Mills High School to pull shut his classroom’s door, but instead found himself watching the climax of a school shooting.
He said he saw a classmate with a gun to his own head as a school resource officer rounded a corner at the Southern Maryland school. Tichenor ducked back inside the classroom as he heard shouting.
“Put the gun down!” the officer yelled. “We know you don’t want to hurt anyone.”
The officer ordered the student to drop the gun again, before two shots sounded, marking the end of the latest school shooting for a nation weary of them. The shooter, identified as Austin Wyatt Rollins, 17, was hit and later died at a hospital. A female and male student, ages 16 and 14, were injured and hospitalized.
The shooting, which played out against a rancorous national debate over arming teachers and putting more officers in schools to prevent school shootings, was notable because authorities credited St. Mary’s County Deputy Blaine Gaskill with possibly saving lives by quickly engaging the shooter.
“This is a tough guy who closed in quickly and took the right action,” Gov. Larry Hogan, R-Md., said of Gaskill, assigned to Great Mills as a school resource officer.
The motive for the shooting remains under investigation, but St. Mary’s County Sheriff Timothy Cameron said detectives are exploring whether a prior relationship between Rollins and the female victim played a role.
Cameron said Rollins pulled out a semi-automatic Glock handgun in a hallway as classes were getting underway at 7:55 a.m. Tuesday at the school of 1,600. Rollins shot the female victim, sending students and staff scrambling for cover.
Cameron said they quickly notified Gaskill, who is the only school resource officer stationed at Great Mills and was assigned there in August. Gaskill also is a member of the local SWAT team and joined the sheriff ’s office six years ago.
Gaskill followed Rollins down the hallway before each fired at nearly the same moment, Cameron said.
Rollins may have shot himself or Gaskill’s bullet may have hit him, but the whole incident lasted just seconds to less than a minute, Cameron said.
Authorities are reviewing video footage from the school to get a better sense of how the incident unfolded. Still, Cameron said there was “no question” the situation would have been worse if the officer had not confronted the shooter.
MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital said in a statement the 14-yearold boy was in “good condition” with a thigh injury.
The 16-year-old girl was stabilized and transferred to University of Maryland Prince George’s Hospital Center, where she remains in critical condition.