Community mourns shooting victims

BENTON, KY. >> A tight-knit rural community reflected Wednesday on the hometown horror of a school shooting that killed two teenagers, injured 18 and sent hundreds of others fleeing for their lives from a place many considered immune from violence.

Police have not publicly identified the 15-yearold accused of opening fire Tuesday at Marshall County High School. Officers said he walked into the “commons” area where many students gather before classes begin and immediately began shooting. Witnesses said he fired a single shot, paused, and then emptied the handgun of ammunition before he tried to escape and was arrested. On Wednesday, authorities said he faces preliminary charges of murder and assault while police investigate what might have prompted the attack.

Throughout a community where practically everyone knows each other — Benton, the nearest town, has about 4,300 people — people were initially shocked, saying “We can’t believe this is happening to us,” Patrick Adamson, a church youth director, said Wednesday.

Dominico Caporali, whose daughter, 16, watched her classmate repeatedly pull the trigger, expressed a similar conviction.

“This community doesn’t have violence that most communities do. All these kids know each other, they hang out with each other,” he told The Associated Press.

But no community is immune to society’s ills — not even Marshall County, where over a four-year stretch ending with the 2016-17 school year, the high school had 317 reports of bullying and other harassment, one first-degree assault, and nine other assaults or acts of violence, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

The school also had 7 arrests involving 22 charges, 285 incidents involving drugs and 30 involving alcohol.