School Shooting South of Spokane Kills One Injures Three
One teenage student has died and three others were injured during a school shooting south of Spokane, Washington on Wednesday, Sept. 14.
One teenage student has died and three others were injured during a school shooting south of Spokane, Washington on Wednesday, Sept. 14.
Police responded quickly to Freeman High School after reports of an active shooter on campus at 10:15 a.m. local time.
Student witnesses say a sophomore student brought a gun to school in a black bag and pulled it out in the middle of the hallway, but it was jammed. The student then pulled out another gun when a different student intervened, trying to stop him. He was shot and killed.
The sophomore shooter was able to shoot three more female students before a custodian convinced him to surrender. A school resource officer took him into custody. Dozens of police units, fire officials, detectives and even the FBI responded to the scene as ambulances and emergency helicopters rushed to help the injured. The three injured victims were taken to Sacred Hearth Hospital and are expected to survive. All were in stable condition as of Wednesday afternoon, however, one might need surgery.
Spokane Public School district responded quickly to the shooting by putting all of their schools in lockdown until they knew the threat was neutralized. A middle school very near to the high school was also put in lockdown and several students from the high school made their way into the building after they heard shots fired.
Police had a giant task of interviewing almost 300 student, faculty and staff witnesses about the crime as they tried to piece together the events of the morning.
There is no information on why the motive for the shooting, but videos found on the shooter's YouTube page showed the sophomore brandishing several types of firearms and directing sketches involving guns. Friends of the shooter said he was becoming increasingly more interested in school shooters and stories about mass casualties.