2 shot to death at Arizona school
Homicide or suicide possibility investigated
Glendale, Ariz. — Two 15year-old girls died Friday in a shooting at a suburban Phoenix high school that initially caused panic among parents who could not reach their children but later emerged as a possible murder-suicide or double-suicide.
It’s not clear what led up to the shooting at Independence High School in Glendale. It was limited to the two students who were each shot once and found under a covered patio near an administration building and cafeteria. A gun was found nearby.
Investigators say they haven’t yet determined whether the deaths were the result of homicide or suicide, but they were not looking for anyone else.
“There is no way you can make a determination this early in an investigation,” Glendale police spokeswoman Tracey Breeden said.
It was not known what the girls’ relationship was or whether they had a dispute. No one has come forward claiming to have witnessed the shooting, Breeden said.
Hours before the lockdown of the school was lifted, hundreds of worried parents crowded the parking lots of nearby discount and convenience stores.
One woman gnawed on her fingernails as she spoke on a cellphone, while another had tears streaming down her face. Other parents chainsmoked as they waited for news.
Cheryl Rice said she went to one of the nearby stores after a friend called about the shooting and asked about Rice’s 15year-old daughter. But the girl called to say she was safe as Rice arrived at the store.
She said it was horrible waiting for word about her child.
“You don’t know if it’s your daughter or not. You don’t know who’s being bullied. You don’t know who is being picked on. You don’t know anything. It could be anybody,” Rice said.
Lanie Walter, who is a senior at the school, heard ambulances on her way to campus but didn’t think much of it until her first class was locked down.
When she called her parents to tell them she was safe, “my mom was actually really relieved because she was watching it on the news,” she said.
Parents were bused to the school to be reunited with their children. Some cut through a nearby field as they rushed toward their kids in emotional reunions. Other students who got permission from their parents left campus on their own.
The Glendale Union High School District alerted parents to the shooting through emails and automatic phone calls and released information on social media, Superintendent Brian Capistran said.
Students typically are not allowed to use their cellphones during lockdowns, but as calls from parents flooded the district, officials asked teachers to have students call family, Capistran said.