UNITED STATES: Two people were killed and six others were injured after a shooter opened fire at a high school in St. Louis, Missouri, on Monday, according to the city’s police commissioner. The shooter was then fatally shot by police.
Police responded to an active shooter complaint at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School around 9:10 a.m. (1410 GMT), and when they arrived, students were running from the building, according to Commissioner Mike Sack.
According to Sack, the students told the police there was a shooter inside with a “long gun”. He added that the culprit, who seemed to be about 20 years old, was critically wounded after police entered and engaged him in firearms.
Sack claimed that two people died: a teacher and a teen girl. The other victims sustained wounds from gunshots and shrapnel. According to a family quoted by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jean Kuczka, a 61-year-old health educator, was among the fatalities.
“While on paper we might have nine victims … we have hundreds of others,” Sack said. “Everyone who survived this is going to take home trauma.”
No officers were hurt, according to Sack.
Authorities did not provide information about the suspect’s motivation or connection to the school.
The shooting was just one of many that have taken place in American schools this year alone and resulted in fatalities or injuries. One of the deadliest occurred in May when a shooter in Uvalde, Texas, killed two adults and 19 children.
Before the incident, The St. Louis’ school doors were secured, according to Sack. Central Visual is a magnet school with around 380 pupils. Security personnel were able to pinpoint the suspect’s point of entry, but he refused to reveal how the shooter got inside.
According to a school administrator who spoke at the news conference, the high school has seven security guards and metal detectors on the premises.
The school principal warned employees and kids over the audio system with the code phrase for a school shooter, according to math instructor David Williams, who spoke with the Post-Dispatch.
He mentioned hearing gunfire outside his classroom and mentioned that the window in the door had been shot out.
Police and other law enforcement personnel received criticism for the Uvalde attack in May because it took more than an hour to engage the shooter, who was confined to a classroom with children and teachers. In that incident, the suspect entered the school through an unlocked door.
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