2 dead, 7 hurt in US school shooting; gunman killed
A 19-year-old gunman opened fire at a high school in St. Louis, Missouri, the US on Monday, killing two people and injuring seven others before officers fatally shot the suspect, the city’s police commissioner said.
No motive for the gun violence was immediately apparent, but Police Commissioner Mike Sack told an early evening news conference the assailant may have suffered from mental illness.
Students fleeing from the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School as police arrived on the scene told officers the shooter was armed with a rifle, Sack said. Police exchanged gunfire with the suspect after storming the school, and he was shot dead, ending the rampage about 15 minutes after the first calls for help came in at about 9:10 am, the commissioner said.
The suspect was identified as Orlando Harris, 19, who graduated from high school in 2021 and had no previous criminal history, Sack told reporters.
“There are suspicions that there may have been some mental illness that he was experiencing. We’re working on developing that information right now,” he said.
A 61-year-old teacher and a 16-year-old girl were killed, Sack said. Four other teenagers suffered gunshot wounds and three more youths sustained other injuries in the pandemonium.
The bloodshed marked a rash of US school shootings that have left dozens dead and wounded in 2022 alone. One of the deadliest took place in May when a gunman killed 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas.
