After a shootout at a high school in St Louis, Missouri, at least three people were killed, including the suspect, as well as seven others were injured.
On Monday, shortly after 9:00 a.m. local time (13:00 GMT), a gunman managed to enter Central Visual & Performing Arts High School.
The school’s doors were locked, and it wasn’t totally obvious how the suspect gained access.
According to witnesses, lives were saved when the gunman’s gun jammed mid-attack.
Police “soon stopped” the gunman, according to St Louis Public Schools.
The accused, a 19-year-old former student, exchanged fire with officers before succumbing to his injuries.
His motivation for the attack on the 400-student school is unknown.
According to police, a teenage girl died within the school and one woman passed away in the hospital.
According to local media, the seven injured, three girls as well as four boys, all suffered non-life threatening injuries.
According to the city’s police commissioner, Michael Sack, students were attempting to run out of the school when officers arrived and reported that the attacker had a “long gun.”
He claimed that seven security guards on site acted swiftly to notify other employees and contact police.
Mr Sack later stated that the gunman was found to be carrying hundreds of bullets, which were sorted into nearly a dozen high-capacity magazines, and that “this could have been far worse.”
“Today is a heartbreaking day for each of us,” he continued. The FBI is assisting with the investigation.
One student told the local news station KMOV that the attacker approached a friend and asked her if she was ready to die?
Taniya Gholston, 16, informed the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the gunman tried to shoot her in her classroom.
“I was attempting to run, but I couldn’t,” she explained. “We made eye contact, but I was able to avoid it because his gun jammed.”
“I’m tired of this damn school,” she heard the attacker say.
According to police, the gunman graduated from the school last year and had no prior criminal history.
Jean Kuczka, a health teacher, was identified by relatives as one of the victims.
According to an online biography, Kuczka, 61, did teach at the school since 2008 and was a grandmother of seven.
“My mom loved kids,” Abigail Kuczka, her daughter, told the Post-Dispatch stating that she died shielding students.
Gunshot wounds, shrapnel injuries, and cardiac arrest are among those reported among those injured.
“Our kids should not have to go through this,” said St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones at a news conference following the shooting.
“People should not be subjected to active shooter drills in the event that something happens. And, unfortunately, this occurred today.”
According to data from the Education Week publication, there have been around least 35 school shootings this year, with a minimum of one individual killed or injured.
Earlier on Monday, a Michigan teen admitted guilt to 24 charges, which include terrorism as well as first murder, stemming from a spree at his school last November.
