Kansas High-School Shooting Leaves Three Injured

  • By Matt Jones
  • March 04, 2022

A student at Olathe East High School in Olathe, Kan., opened fire at school on Friday, March 4, injuring a school administrator and a school resource officer. Local news reports that the suspect was shot, injured and taken into custody.

Olathe Police Department spokesman Sgt. Joel Yeldell told the media that the situation was no longer an active threat. He said it was his understanding that the suspect was a student at the school but provided no further details about his identity. CNN reports that when asked if the school resource officer shot the suspect, he replied, “Yes, that’s my understanding.”

"I did hear just shortly before we started that our officer is fine. He's talking to people at the hospital,” Yeldell said. "Our administrator is also in stable condition and, I believe, expected to survive, as well as the suspect that's in custody."

Police received a call of shots fired at about 10:30 a.m. CT. Yeldell said that it appeared as though the school administration had “contacted” the suspect in the school’s office before the school administrator was shot. Yeldell said he had no information about the cause of the shooting, the weapon used or the number of shots fired. He said authorities would release more details as they became known.

A video circulating on social media that showed an individual holding a rifle and entering the school was confirmed to be of a responding Olathe police officer, the police department tweeted on Friday afternoon.

"We had an SRO, it sounds like, that did his job, so that's great news and the injuries are expected to be survivable," Yeldell said.

Olathe East High School has about 2,000 students and is located about 30 minutes southwest of Kansas City.

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning and Campus Security and Life Safety. He can be reached at [email protected]

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