A gunman entered a St. Louis high school Monday around 9 a.m. shouting, “You’re all going to f—ing die!”
The shooter, who was later identified as 19-year-old Orlando Harris, killed a student and a teacher and wounded seven others before being shot dead by cops, according to reports.
According to the New York Post, teen student Alexis Bell was pronounced dead at the scene and the adult victim — identified as physical education teacher Jean Kuczka, 61, — died at the hospital, police said.
When the gunman entered Kuczka’s classroom, she stood in front of the shooter to shield her students, her daughter was reportedly told by authorities.
“My mom loved kids,” her daughter Abigail Kuczka told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of her mom, who taught at the school since 2008. “She loved her students. I know her students looked at her like she was their mom because a lot of them didn’t have a good home life.”Keyshawn Brooks, a student in the classroom during the shooting, explained the horrifying scene to KSDK-TV.
“He shot the teacher first. She fell to the floor. Another boy got shot in the hand and he was bleeding. Two other girls got shot.” He added, “When he left the room, we opened the window and we jumped out.”
The wounded victims were being treated for gunshot and shrapnel wounds at a local hospital, according to officials.
Another student told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch she and the gunman came eye-to-eye when he entered the room she was in.
“All I heard was two shots and he came in there with a gun,” 16-year-old Taniya Gholston said. “And I was trying to run and I couldn’t run.
“Me and him made eye contact but I made it out because his gun got jammed. But we saw blood on the floor.”
She also said she heard him say something about being “tired of this damn school,” the Post-Dispatch reported.Officials are working to determine if there was a relationship between the gunman and his victims.
According to reports, the school had seven security guards at the time of the incident, each one posted at a door, said St. Louis Schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams.
The suspect was able to get through the school’s locked doors, entered the building with a long gun at around 9:10 a.m. and began shooting in a third-story classroom, said St. Louis Police Commissioner Mike Sack, who acknowledged the gunman’s struggle with the locked doors “bought us time;” however, he could not say how the attacker got through the door.
He said security officials were able to quickly alert cops who arrived within minutes. The officers entered the school with “no hesitation” and engaged the suspect with gunfire. The shooter was killed on the scene.
Students were carefully ushered from the school and parents were notified to go to Gateway STEM at 5191 McRee Ave. to reunite with their kids.
“This is a heartbreaking day for all of us. It’s gonna be tough,” Sacks told reporters. “While on paper we may have nine victims… we have hundreds of others.”
