Post by Neko Bazu on Oct 11, 2007 6:56:48 GMT -1
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7038532.stm
I'm getting a sense of 'copycat' about this one, somehow
How the fuck does a 14 yr-old get hold of two guns, though - and surely there must've been more to it than being unhappy about being suspended?
A 14-year-old student has shot himself dead after going on a shooting spree at his school in the US city of Cleveland, Ohio, the city's mayor has said.
Mayor Frank Jackson said four people were wounded when the teenager entered the SuccessTech Academy and walked down a corridor on the fourth floor firing.
Two teenage boys and two adults were shot, and another girl injured her knee while fleeing, Mr Jackson said.
Local media reported the attacker had been unhappy at having been suspended.
The SuccessTech Academy is a 250-student alternative high school that specialises in business and technology.
It is based on several floors of the Lakeside Avenue administration building in the city centre.
At a news conference, Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath said his force's initial investigation indicated that the 14-year-old boy had killed himself before police arrived and that he had at least two guns.
Mr McGrath said video surveillance would allow them to determine how long the gunman was in the school before the shooting, but the student is believed to have arrived early on Wednesday morning.
The main scene of the shooting on the 4th floor of the Lakeside Avenue building is still being processed by the city's coroner's office, he added.
Witnesses reported having seen the shooter roam through school corridors with a gun in each hand.
Ronnell Jackson, 15, told the Associated Press that he saw the attacker running down a hallway.
The victims of the shooting are in a stable condition in hospital
"He was aiming at me, I got out just in time," he said.
Some students and staff fled after hearing shots and an alert on the school public address system. Others attempted to hide in cupboards or under desks.
Afterwards, shaken students and worried relatives stood outside the building waiting for news.
One student told Philadelphia Channel 6 Action News that the student was a goth and had been wearing a trenchcoat, boots and a chain.
"When he got suspended, he said 'I got something for y'all'," she added.
Cleveland's mayor said those injured in the shooting included two teenage boys aged 14 and 17, who were both in a "stable, good condition".
A 57-year-old man and a 42-year-old man were hurt slightly more seriously and are in "a little elevated condition", Mayor Jackson said.
"The families of all of the victims have been notified, and we are currently connecting all the children and parents with people who can help them through this," he added.
The chief executive of the Cleveland Municipal School District, Eugene Sanders, announced that all the school's activities had been cancelled until Monday.
All public schools in Cleveland will be closed on Thursday, he said, so that students and teachers can "take a breather" and "put this in perspective".
Joanne DeMarco, president of the Cleveland Teachers' Union, said she was surprised at the shooting.
"Schools are supposed to be safe places, safe places. And you know, it's not that Cleveland's immune to anything that's going on in the nation, but SuccessTech would have been the last place we would have thought of," she said.
Responding to reports that a teenage student may have been responsible, a reader from Cleveland told the BBC News website that the school had been getting good results.
"It's a shame one kid has spoiled all that... and an even bigger shame that due to budget cuts the security the school needed wasn't in place," she said.
Several parents have complained in interviews with local media that the school had recently denied requests to hire a security guard.
The incident comes six months after the US suffered its worst ever campus shooting, when a gunman killed more than 30 students and staff at Virginia Tech.
Mayor Frank Jackson said four people were wounded when the teenager entered the SuccessTech Academy and walked down a corridor on the fourth floor firing.
Two teenage boys and two adults were shot, and another girl injured her knee while fleeing, Mr Jackson said.
Local media reported the attacker had been unhappy at having been suspended.
The SuccessTech Academy is a 250-student alternative high school that specialises in business and technology.
It is based on several floors of the Lakeside Avenue administration building in the city centre.
At a news conference, Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath said his force's initial investigation indicated that the 14-year-old boy had killed himself before police arrived and that he had at least two guns.
Mr McGrath said video surveillance would allow them to determine how long the gunman was in the school before the shooting, but the student is believed to have arrived early on Wednesday morning.
The main scene of the shooting on the 4th floor of the Lakeside Avenue building is still being processed by the city's coroner's office, he added.
Witnesses reported having seen the shooter roam through school corridors with a gun in each hand.
Ronnell Jackson, 15, told the Associated Press that he saw the attacker running down a hallway.
The victims of the shooting are in a stable condition in hospital
"He was aiming at me, I got out just in time," he said.
Some students and staff fled after hearing shots and an alert on the school public address system. Others attempted to hide in cupboards or under desks.
Afterwards, shaken students and worried relatives stood outside the building waiting for news.
One student told Philadelphia Channel 6 Action News that the student was a goth and had been wearing a trenchcoat, boots and a chain.
"When he got suspended, he said 'I got something for y'all'," she added.
Cleveland's mayor said those injured in the shooting included two teenage boys aged 14 and 17, who were both in a "stable, good condition".
A 57-year-old man and a 42-year-old man were hurt slightly more seriously and are in "a little elevated condition", Mayor Jackson said.
"The families of all of the victims have been notified, and we are currently connecting all the children and parents with people who can help them through this," he added.
The chief executive of the Cleveland Municipal School District, Eugene Sanders, announced that all the school's activities had been cancelled until Monday.
All public schools in Cleveland will be closed on Thursday, he said, so that students and teachers can "take a breather" and "put this in perspective".
Joanne DeMarco, president of the Cleveland Teachers' Union, said she was surprised at the shooting.
"Schools are supposed to be safe places, safe places. And you know, it's not that Cleveland's immune to anything that's going on in the nation, but SuccessTech would have been the last place we would have thought of," she said.
Responding to reports that a teenage student may have been responsible, a reader from Cleveland told the BBC News website that the school had been getting good results.
"It's a shame one kid has spoiled all that... and an even bigger shame that due to budget cuts the security the school needed wasn't in place," she said.
Several parents have complained in interviews with local media that the school had recently denied requests to hire a security guard.
The incident comes six months after the US suffered its worst ever campus shooting, when a gunman killed more than 30 students and staff at Virginia Tech.
I'm getting a sense of 'copycat' about this one, somehow
How the fuck does a 14 yr-old get hold of two guns, though - and surely there must've been more to it than being unhappy about being suspended? 