Three people are dead, including the shooter, following a shooting at a US high school Monday morning in St. Louis, Missouri, local police reported.
Speaking at a news conference, St. Louis Police Chief Michael Sack said the three deaths included a woman, a teenage girl and the shooter, described as a man in his 20s.
Occurring just after 9 a.m. at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, the shooting forced students to barricade doors and huddle in the corners of classrooms, jump out of windows and run out of the building to to shelter.
Mr Sack said security officials first became alarmed when the shooter tried to enter the locked school building. He declined to say how the man entered, armed with what he described as a long gun.
Officers located the shooter after running to where a shot fired, Michael Sack said. They then engaged in a gunfight killing the man.
The police chief declined to name the victims and did not say whether the woman who was killed was a teacher.
Six other injured people were hospitalized. Michael Sack said some were shot and wounded, while others were hit by shrapnel. He did not provide any information on their condition.
“I couldn’t run away”
A student, Taniya Gholston, 16, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that she was in a room when the shooter entered.
“All I heard was two shots and he came in with a gun,” the teenager said. And I was trying to run away and I couldn’t run away. He and I made eye contact, but I did because his gun jammed. But we saw blood on the floor. »
Another student, ninth grade Nylah Jones, told the Post Dispatch that she was in math class when the shooter fired into the room from the hallway. The man was unable to enter the room and knocked on the door as students piled into a corner, she testified.
The police chief said the shooting happened at 9:10 a.m. A security perimeter was placed around the school and parents arrived to pick up the children and check on their safety.
Central Visual and Performing Arts High School is a special purpose school, specializing in visual arts, musical art and performing arts with approximately 400 students. The district’s website states, “The school’s educational program is designed to create a nurturing environment where students receive a quality academic and arts education that prepares them to compete successfully at the post-secondary level or perform competently in the world of work”.