US school shooting kills teacher and student
There’s been another horrific school shooting in the US, this time in the city of St. Louis in Missouri state. The gunman attacked the Central Visual & Performing Arts High School on yesterday morning, killing two people and injuring seven, according to the latest updates.
The two people killed were 16 year old student Alexandria Bell, and a health teacher identified as Jean Kuczka.
Police arrived on the scene to find hundreds of students running out of the school. The city’s police chief commissioner said the shooter had a “long gun.” Police exchanged gunfire with the gunman who was struck down by a bullet. He later died at the hospital.
The police identified the suspect as 19 year old Orlando Harris, a graduate of the school. The chief commissioner, Mike Sack, said Harris had no prior criminal history.
One survivor, a 16 year old girl, told reporters that she had made eye contact with the shooter, and she heard him saying he was “tired of this damn school.” A math teacher, David Williams, said he heard shots outside his classroom and one of the windows on the classroom door was shattered. He heard the gunman say, “You are all going to (expletive) die.”
The school’s community is now reeling in the aftermath of the shooting. Sack said that everyone who survived is “going to take home the trauma.”
According to the media outlet Education Week, there have been 40 US school shootings this year that resulted in injuries or deaths. There have been 132 such shootings since 2018.
