Chronology of School Shootings

November 8, 2005, Jacksboro, TN, Campbell County Comprehensive High School
March 21, 2005, Red Lake, Minnesota, Red Lake Senior High School
October 1, 2003, Sacramento Ca, Rio Cazadero High School
September 27, 2003, Lawndale, NC, Burns Middle School
September 26, 2003, Cold Spring MN, Rocori High School
September 22, 2003, Spokane WA, Lewis and Clark High School
April 24, 2003, Red Lion, PA, Red Lion Area Junior High
April 14, 2003, New Orleans, LA, John McDonogh High School
April 26, 2002, Erfurt, Germany, Gutenburg High School
October 17, 2001, New Bedford, MA, New Bedford High School
March 25, 2001, El Cajon, California, Granite Hills High Shool
March 7, 2001, Williamsport, PA, Bishop Neumann Junior-Senior High
March 4, 2001, Sanatee, California, Santana High School
February 2, 2001, Detroit, MI, Osborn High School
January 17, 2001, Baltimore, MD, Lake Clifton Eastern High School
May 26, 2000, Lake Worth Middle School, Lake Worth, Florida
March 24, 2000, McKinley Elementary School, Lisbon, Ohio
March 10, 2000, Beach High School, Savannah, Ga
February 29, 2000, Buell Elementary School, Mount Morris Township, Michigan
December 6, 1999, Fort Gibson, Oklahoma
November 19, 1999, Deming Middle School, Deming New Mexico
October 12, 1999, Clark High School, Las Vegas
May 20, 1999 Heritage High School, Atlanta GA
April 29, 1999 W.R. Myers high school, Alberta Canada
April 20, 1999, Columbine High School, Littleton Colorado
January 8, 1999, Central High School, Carrollton, Georgia
May 21, 1998 Thurston High, Springfield Oregon
May 19, 1998 Lincoln County High School, Fayetteville, Tenn.
April 24, 1998, James W. Parker school, Edinboro, Pa.
March 24, 1998 Jonesboro, Arkansas
December 1, 1997, Heath High School, West Paducah, Ky.
October 2, 1997, Pearl Mississippi
Feb. 19, 1997, Bethel, Alaska
Feb. 2, 1996, Frontier Junior High School

ARTIST: Boomtown Rats TITLE: I Don't Like Mondays

This record was subjected to an unofficial ban by most US radio stations, who were wary of legal action from the parents of a schoolgirl (Brenda Spencer from San Diego) who shot her classmates 29th January 1979. She killed two and wounded nine others in a 1979 San Carlos school yard sniping incident. At the time of the incident, Spencer explained the 6 1/2-hour shooting spree to a reporter this way: "I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day." She was 16 then. She later pleaded guilty to murder and assault charges and was sentenced to 25 years-to-life in prison.

{Refrain}
Tell me why - I don't like Mondays
Tell me why - I don't like Mondays
Tell me why - I don't like Mondays
I want to shoot
The whole day down

The Telex machine is kept so clean
And it types to a waiting world
And Mother feels so shocked
Father's world is rocked
And their thoughts turn to their own little girl
Sweet 16 ain't that peachy keen
No, it ain't so neat to admit defeat
They can see no reasons
'Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need, oh-h-h

{Refrain}
Down, down, shoot it all down

And all the playing's stopped in the playground now
She wants to play with her toys a while
And school's out early and soon we'll be learning
And the lesson today is how to die
And then the bullhorn crackles
And the captain tackles
With the problems and the how's and why's
And he can see no reasons
'Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to die, die, oh-h-h

And the silicon chip inside her head
Gets switched to overload
Oh, and nobody's gonna go to school today
She's going to make them stay at home
And Daddy doesn't understand it
He always said she was as good as gold
And he can see no reason
'Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to be shown

{Refrain, with 7 tell me why's}
back to top of page

November 8, 2005, JACKSBORO, Tennessee (CNN)

A high school student opened fire Tuesday afternoon on a principal and two assistant principals, killing one of the men before a teacher wrestled his weapon away, the sheriff said.

The 15-year-old suspect was taken into custody, authorities said. No students were injured, and Campbell County Comprehensive High School in Jacksboro, Tennessee, was locked down immediately after the shootings, said Judy Blevens, director of county schools. About 1,400 students are enrolled in the school.

Campbell County Sheriff Ron McClellan identified the slain assistant principal as Ken Bruce, 48. McClellan, who was at Bruce's side when he died, said it's not clear how many times the assistant principal was shot, but it appears the suspect used a small-caliber handgun, perhaps a .22.

Two other victims -- Principal Gary Seale and Assistant Principal Jim Pierce, who also is a track coach -- were airlifted to the University of Tennessee Medical Center. Pierce was in critical condition and Seale was in serious condition, hospital spokeswoman Lisa McNeal said Tuesday afternoon. The student suspect allegedly slipped a gun under a napkin and fired at the administrators in a common area, CNN affiliate WATE reported. Bruce was taken to St. Mary's Medical Center in LaFollette, about five miles away. The suspect also was taken there for treatment of a gunshot wound to his right hand. He was seen hours later -- wearing glasses and a blood-spattered yellow shirt -- leaving the hospital and getting into a sheriff's vehicle.

He was taken to a juvenile facility in neighboring Scott County. Police already have taken statements from the suspect and were piecing together a motive Tuesday evening, McClellan said. "I have no information firsthand of what type of motive or what would cause this individual to do this," McClellan told WATE, adding that the student's father had arrived at St. Mary's with a lawyer. CNN affiliate WBIR interviewed a longtime friend of one of the administrators who said "everybody's very sad" and "in disbelief" after the attack. One pupil described Bruce as someone who always lent a willing ear to the students. "He was a nice guy. If you went to talk to him about any problems you had, he'd be a person who would listen," said student Nathan Lawson.

As word of the shooting spread, a throng of concerned parents gathered outside the school. Authorities tried to assure them the students were OK and that dozens of police and deputies had secured the scene. Buses and vehicles eventually were allowed onto campus to pick up students. Jacksboro, a town of about 2,000 people, is in northeast Tennessee near the Kentucky border. It's about 35 miles northwest of Knoxville.

A student authorities say killed seven people at his Minnesota high school first shot his grandfather and the man's girlfriend before taking his police-issued weapon, bulletproof vest and squad car to Red Lake Senior High School. FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael Tabman said Tuesday that 16-year-old Jeff Weise killed his grandfather, 58-year-old Daryl Lussier, and his grandfather's 32-year-old girlfriend, Michelle Sigana, with a .22-caliber gun before driving to the school Monday.

FBI agents would not confirm reports that Weise had posted comments on a neo-Nazi Web site. But a person who posted on the site of the Libertarian National Socialist Green Party identified himself as "Jeff Weise, from the Red Lake 'Indian' Reservation." The writer said he disliked interracial mixing among the American Indians on the reservation where he lived.

Federal investigators, however, said that while the postings may provide clues to the rampage, it was premature Tuesday to speculate on a motive. The shootings at the school appeared to be random, Tabman said. He said authorities believe Weise stole his grandfather's police-issued pistol and a shotgun, as well as a gunbelt and vest. Authorities said he had three guns in all.

As Weise entered the school through a doorway with a metal detector, he was confronted by 28-year-old Derrick Brun, an unarmed guard. Weise shot Brun to death before proceeding into the school, Tabman said. A videotape shows Weise in a hallway, but doesn't capture any of the shootings, he said. Weise fired shots toward 62-year-old teacher Neva Winnecoup Rogers, as well as some students, who fled into a classroom, Tabman said. He pursued them and opened fire, killing Rogers and "a number" of students, then "continued to roam through the school, firing randomly."

Four police officers entered, and Weise fired on them as well, Tabman said. At least one officer returned fire, but it was unknown whether Weise was wounded. Shortly afterward, Weise went back into the classroom and shot himself in the head, he said. In all, Tabman said, Weise spent "less than 10 minutes" inside the school, firing many rounds: "There was a lot of damage." According to Tabman, Weise shot and killed five students -- Thurlene Stillday, 15; Chase Lussier, 15, Chanelle Rosebear, 15, Alicia Spike, 14, Dwayne Lewis, 15.

Police do not know how much earlier Lussier and Sigana were killed. FBI Special Agent Paul McCabe would not say if Chase Lussier was related to Daryl Lussier. The death toll made it the nation's worst school shooting since April 1999, when two students killed 12 classmates, a teacher and then themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. (Full story)

Authorities said Weise did not live with Daryl Lussier, but they would not release where he was living. There was no suicide note, Tabman said. The school remained closed Tuesday. Counseling was being offered to tribe members, said Floyd Jourdain, chairman of the Red Lake Ojibwa Nation. "Our community is devastated by this event," he said. "We have never seen anything like this in the history of our tribe. Without a doubt, these are some of the darkest days for our people."

About 5,000 members of the Ojibwa tribe live on the reservation. The Ojibwa are also known as the Chippewa. The shootings occurred about 3 p.m. (4 p.m. ET) in Red Lake Senior High School, a school of about 300 students located on a sovereign Indian reservation near the Canadian border about 240 miles north of the Twin Cities.

In addition to the fatalities, seven people were injured, the FBI said Tuesday, and five remained hospitalized. Six of the wounded -- all males younger than 18 -- were taken to North County Regional Hospital in nearby Bemidji, Minnesota, by ambulance, arriving within a half-hour, hospital spokeswoman Sherri Birkeland said Tuesday. One died in the hospital emergency room from a gunshot wound to the head, and two others -- one with a gunshot wound to the head, a second with a gunshot wound to the face -- were flown to a hospital in Fargo, North Dakota, she said.

One of those required neurosurgery and the other facial surgery, both of which are offered in Fargo, said Dr. Joe Corser of the Bemidji hospital. The other three were all admitted to North County, Birkeland said. None of them were in critical condition. Two had been shot in the chest and one had a hip injury. They were expected to survive, Corser said. The head wounds were at close range, said Tim Hall, emergency nursing director at the hospital.

The Libertarian National Socialist Green Party issued a statement on its site Tuesday confirming that Weise posted messages there. The writer of those messages assumed two user names: NativeNazi and "Todesengel," which means "Angel of Death" in German. "I stumbled across the site in my study of the Third Reich as well as Nazism," says a March 2004 post. "I guess I've always carried a natural admiration for Hitler and his ideals, and his courage to take on larger nations." Another 2004 posting says, "As a result of cultural dominance and interracial mixing, there is barely any full-blooded Natives left. Where I live, less than 1 percent of all the people on the reservation can speak their own language." "Under a National Socialist government, things for us would improve vastly," it said. "That is why I am pro-Nazi. It's hard though, being a Native American National Socialist, people are so misinformed, ignorant and close minded, it makes your life a living hell."

The group issued a statement on its site Tuesday confirming that Weise posted the messages. "The Libertarian National Socialist Green Party ... refused to wring hands over a 'tragedy,' instead pointing out that such events are to be expected when thinking people are crammed into an unthinking, irrational modern society," it said. NativeNazi said he was a member of the Ojibwa tribe and "both my parents were Native American, though from what I understand I also have a little German, a little Irish and a little French Canadian in my blood as well." The idea of Weise's joining a neo-Nazi group is not as surprising as it may seem, said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama. The center tracks hate groups.

"Believe it or not, we run across this all the time," he told CNN. "We've found Jewish Nazis, gay Nazis, blacks who wanted to be white supremacists. The reason it isn't so unusual -- these are powerless people to whom images of powerful people are appealing." Todesengel said in a May 2004 posting: "Because of my size and appearance, people don't give me as much trouble as they would if I looked weak." "I'll defend myself if someone tries something but other than that I'm a peaceful person."

The last posting was made in August 2004, according to an archive search.

(CNN) -- Police shot and wounded an apparently distraught 17-year-old student Monday about an hour after he holed up with a gun in a classroom of Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, Washington.

The boy, accompanied by his parents, was carried out of the school on a stretcher about an hour after the incident began and taken to a hospital, authorities said.

"When he left here, he was OK," Police Chief Roger Bragdon told reporters.

"We have no idea what his motivation was to be here today with this handgun," Bragdon said.

"There's a lot of indications that he was depressed and upset and very angry about something, but we don't know what it was."

No hostages were involved. Police negotiators initially established a dialogue with the boy, but when he stopped talking, the SWAT team intervened, Bragdon said.

"We invoked what we call an 'active-shooter response,' " he said.

Bragdon said the strategy was established after police were criticized for responding too slowly to the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, where two students killed 12 other students and a teacher before killing themselves April 20, 1999.

"Anybody from Columbine law enforcement has learned that if you're going to stop anything, you've got to go in immediately," Bragdon said.

"It's a tragedy that a 17-year-old boy ended up being ... hurt in this, but it would have been a worse tragedy if others had been involved."

The incident began about 9 a.m. (noon EDT) when teachers discovered the youth had a gun in a classroom, Bragdon said.

Within a few minutes, the school's 2,000 students were evacuated and negotiators began talking with him, Bragdon said.

"At some point, he decided he wasn't going to participate any more and [he] apparently became aggressive," Bragdon said.

Senior Brian Bechtold said at first he thought it was a fire drill when teachers yelled at him to get out.

"Through the whole thing, no one knew what was going on. Rumors were abounding," Bechtold told a reporter.

"I think it's kind of a tragedy that this happens here in Spokane. People kind of assume it's the place where nothing happens, and it's hard to believe that it's happening here," he said.

"But I guess it's hard to believe that it's happening anywhere."

LAWNDALE, North Carolina (AP) -- Two shots were fired inside a middle school as students were arriving for class Thursday morning, but no one was injured, and a student was taken into custody, a district spokeswoman said.

Officials had not determined if the student was firing at anyone in particular, said Cleveland County Schools spokeswoman Donna Carpenter.

She said the shots were fired about 8 a.m. inside a wing of Burns Middle School. Some students who had just pulled up to the school were kept on their buses for more than hour, she said.

She had no further information.

Parents began arriving at the school after word of the shots got out, but had to wait to take their children home, Carpenter said. "We're not going to release anybody until we determine who was there," she said.

The incident followed a school shooting in Minnesota a day earlier in which authorities say a 15-year-old boy killed one student and critically wounding another before a gym teacher apparently talked him into dropping the gun.

COLD SPRING, Minnesota (AP) -- When a second shooting victim was found near the weight room at Rocori High School, emergency worker Tom Rollins was the first to rush downstairs to give first aid.

There, he found his son Aaron, mortally wounded.

The tragic encounter near the bottom of the stairs was yet another mournful note for a community reeling from shock at Wednesday's shooting and the identity of the suspect, a classmate of the two victims.

Rollins was too distraught to give medical assistance, and someone else was sent to help his 17-year-old son, who died at a hospital a short time later. Seth Bartell, 14, remained in critical condition early Friday.

Authorities had not yet identified the suspect, but students and the teacher who apprehended him said he is John Jason McLaughlin, 15, the son of a Stearns County sheriff's deputy. McLaughlin was not immediately charged; authorities had until noon Friday to charge or release him.

By late Thursday, authorities had searched the school and McLaughlin's home, seizing three computers.

Giving the first detailed account of the attack, investigators Thursday said the suspect pulled a .22-caliber gun from a gym bag as he walked out of a locker room, then fired two shots, hitting the victims.

Bartell got up the stairs. The shooter followed and fired again, said Tim O'Malley of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

At that point, Mark Johnson, a 27-year teacher and coach, confronted the teen. The student raised the gun and Johnson raised his right hand and shouted "No!"

The shooter emptied the bullets from his gun and dropped it before Johnson grabbed the weapon and hustled the boy to the school office.

"Very quiet," Johnson said. "Didn't say a word. As I escorted him to the office, didn't say one word. He came with me very willingly."

Rocori High School students hold a vigil outside the school Thursday.
O'Malley said it did not appear the suspect was intent on a Columbine-style massacre. It wasn't clear whether the shooter knew the victims, and authorities refused to identify a motive.

On Thursday, emotional parents hugged each other as they escorted their children to a session at a nearby middle school in Cold Spring, a town of about 3,000 people 60 miles northwest of the Twin Cities.

Rollins' uncle, Russ Van Beck, read a statement on behalf of the family, thanking law enforcement and school officials for their quick response.

"Aaron was a terrific young man with a positive attitude and a great smile which we will all miss," Van Beck said. "We all know that Aaron would expect us to make something positive from this situation. We challenge everyone to help us achieve this outcome."

Earlier Thursday, hundreds of Rocori High School students and their parents met with school officials, counselors and a Columbine survivor to talk about dealing with the shootings.

Holly Pardue was a freshman at Columbine High School in 1999 when two teens shot and killed 12 students and a teacher. Though Pardue was off-campus at the time of that attack, she lived through the aftermath and said she felt compelled to come to Cold Spring when she heard about Wednesday's shootings.

"I wanted to see if there was anything I could do," Pardue said.

School officials said classes would resume at the high school on Friday. The Rocori district serves 2,673 students from the central Minnesota towns of Rockville, Cold Spring and Richmond.

SACRAMENTO, California (AP) --(October 1, 2003) A gun-wielding teen took an administrator hostage at a high school Wednesday, and both were wounded after officers confronted the youth, officials said.

Mario Rodriguez, 19, was in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds, Sacramento County Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Lou Fatur said.

The Rio Cazadero High School administrator, whom police would not identify, was hospitalized in good condition with a wound to the leg. Though police initially said the administrator was shot, either by police or the youth, Fatur said it was possible the administrator injured his leg in a struggle with Rodriguez.

Rodriguez was armed with a shotgun and handgun when he came onto the campus just before 9 a.m., Fatur said. He said it was unclear if Rodriguez was a student at the school.

"He was hunting somebody down with a couple of guns," Fatur said. The deputy and Sacramento city police officers who intervened "absolutely prevented what could have been just mayhem. A kid with two guns was obviously here to do some major damage."

Police had added extra patrols at area high schools Tuesday, after a 15-year-old was fatally shot near C.K. McClatchy High in front of dozens of other students who had just finished classes. The suspect is believed to be a suspended student associated with a street gang, police said.

"They had a feeling that schools might be a target" after Tuesday's shooting, Fatur said, but are unsure if Rodriguez was intending to retaliate or had another motive.

Rio Cazadero is an alternative high school for students who have fallen behind in classes, said Samantha Bauer, a spokeswoman for the Elk Grove Unified School District. About 280 students attend the school in south Sacramento. Students were taken to a neighboring high school so their parents could pick them up there, Bauer said.

RED LION, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A 14-year-old student armed with three revolvers killed a junior high school principal Thursday morning in a cafeteria packed with teens and then killed himself, authorities said.

Red Lion Area Junior High Principal Eugene Segro was pronounced dead at York Hospital, and the student died at the school, about 35 miles southeast of Harrisburg. A motive was not immediately known, said Red Lion Borough Police Chief Walt Hughes.

"Anybody that does that has issues," he said at an afternoon news conference. "We're looking into that to try to find out what that was." The principal was in the cafeteria, where students go before classes begin, Hughes said. "To our knowledge there was nothing going on when the incident went down," at 7:34 a.m., he said. No students were injured, and no one else was hurt, he said.

Hughes said that according to information authorities have gathered so far, there's no reason to believe anyone else was involved in the shootings. "We have no information that anything led up to this or that he spoke to someone else about it," the chief said, adding that police are reviewing video from school surveillance cameras to try to learn more about what happened.

"The school district is grieving the loss of our beloved junior high school principal, Dr. Segro, and the student involved," said Larry Macaluso, Red Lion Area superintendent. "We will continue to make plans to deal with the rest of our students, the staff and our parents and have them work through this." Hughes said the student brought the revolvers from his home, where they had been locked in a gun safe. He said he doesn't foresee any criminal charges against the boy's parents relating to the weapons.

No metal detectors at school. The .44-caliber Magnum, .357-caliber Magnum and .22-caliber revolvers were legally registered in the student's step-father's name, the chief said. York County Coroner Barry Bloss said the principal and student had only one bullet wound each. The principal was shot in the chest with a .44-caliber handgun, and the student died from gunshot to the head from a .22-caliber handgun, authorities said. Police were on the scene within minutes of the incident. Students were evacuated immediately. Students from the junior high, a nearby high school and an elementary school were dismissed from school a few hours later. The junior high will be closed Friday. Macaluso, asked about security at the school, said there are no metal detectors and students are not searched as they enter the building. "We have not had any security checks of students up until this time," he said.

"Our schools are locked when students are in the building in the morning and anyone entering the building must be identified and then report to the office," he said. Counseling sessions were made available in the afternoon for junior high students and their parents in the senior high school auditorium. An informational meeting for parents was scheduled for Thursday evening.

"It's a tragedy. We're all sorry for it," Hughes said. Segro was the school's principal for seven years. "We're in shock. Total disbelief," Douglas Kilgore, school board vice president, said after the shooting.

One student killed in Georgia school shooting

CARROLLTON, Georgia (CNN) -- One Georgia high school student was killed and another was wounded Friday morning in a shooting at Central High School, Carroll County Coroner Sam Eady said. School officials confirmed there was a shooting. The school was closed for the day and students were sent home, officials there said.

A 15-year-old girl was killed and her 17-year-old boyfriend was critically wounded Friday in what authorities consider a boyfriend-girlfriend shooting at a local high school. The double shooting took place at Central High School 15 minutes after class began. The girl died later at Tanner Medical Center in Carrollton, according to authorities. The boy was taken 50 miles by helicopter to Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta. His condition was unknown.

The victims were discovered by a school employee. The shooting took place in the girls' restroom in the school's science wing. Authorities said a .22-caliber pistol was used. "It's a boyfriend-girlfriend situation," said Sheriff Tony Reeves. "Apparently there were problems between them." The shooting "just happened on a school campus," he added. "It was not a sniper-type situation or anything like that." The sheriff would not say who fired the shots or comment on whether the shootings appeared to be an attempted murder-suicide. Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents helped local authorities at the school scene.

Schoolmates said they had seen the female victim crying in the hallway before school Friday. They assumed it had something to do with her troubled romance. The boyfriend had talked darkly in recent days, telling other students "he probably wouldn't be here much longer," recalled Tiffany Osteen, 17. No one took the talk seriously. "He likes to get attention," she said. Friends described the girl, who played clarinet in the school marching band, as smart and friendly, while her older boyfriend was more of a loner.

"He was funny, but he didn't really have any friends," said Osteen. "He was strange." Some students said they had heard that the girl's parents didn't approve of her relationship and that she had been under pressure to stop seeing the boy. Scott Cowart, principal of the school with an enrollment of about 1,000, declined to discuss the couple. He said the school was focusing on helping students cope with their shock and grief. "Everybody was scared and shocked," said student Michelle Crews, 14. "A lot of people were crying."

The school shut down for the day, but many students were still at the school two hours after the incident. Others were sent home by bus or waited for their parents to pick them up. Cars quickly lined both sides of the street in front of the school as parents, panicked as word spread of the shooting in this town of 17,000, raced to pick up their children. "They said all the color went out of me; I got weak in the knees," said Joani Osteen. "You see it on TV all the time, but not here."

News helicopters circled overhead and television satellite trucks set up in the Baptist church across the street from the brick school buildings. Counselors from schools around Carroll County came to help, and Tanner Medical Center sent six therapists. School Superintendent Gary Boehmer said the counselors would be available on campus over the weekend for students and parents. The Tanner therapists offered a group session Friday afternoon and a 24-hour hot line for on-call help.

Four students shot, one killed, at New Orleans high school
Monday, April 14, 2003 Posted: 7:23 PM EDT (2323 GMT)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Gunmen armed with an AK-47 rifle and a handgun opened fire in a packed high school gym Monday, killing a 15-year-old boy and wounding three teenage girls in a spray of more than 30 bullets that sent students scrambling for cover.

Four suspects, ranging in age from 15 to 19, were arrested in a sweep of the neighborhood near John McDonogh High School, about a mile north of the French Quarter. Police Chief Eddie Compass said he did not know if the suspects attended the school. At least 200 students were in the gymnasium when the four suspects entered the building. The victim was apparently seated on the bleachers with other students when the gunmen confronted him. They shot repeatedly, striking the victim in the head and body and sending panicked students screaming. Police identified the victim as Jonathan Williams. Police had not determined a motive Monday night, but students said the shooting was apparently gang related and may have been retaliation for a previous fight.

"They started shooting and I started running," said ninth-grader Garick Jacob, who was in the gym when the shooting began. "I was really scared." The gunman managed to slip out of the gym and the suspects were arrested about three blocks away. Two were in a getaway vehicle and two others were at a nearby house. It was not immediately clear how the gun got through metal detectors and guards at the school. Students and school security officers said there was a hole in the fence near the gym. School board member Elliot Willard said students told him that the boy was the target and the girls were accidental victims.

Leon Myles, a 17-year-old junior, said he knew Williams. "He was an OK guy," he said. "It was probably gang stuff." Charity hospital spokesman Jerry Romig said a 15-year-old girl had surgery because a bullet went through both her legs. Michelle Brown, 16, and Trakeido Barracks, 16, were both treated and released. They were grazed by bullets. Christian Ransfer, 16, remained in the hospital with stomach injuries she suffered when she was trampled as students fled. Word of the shooting swept through the school where many students had radios and cell phones. In the computer class, students used their Internet terminals to read reports of the shooting.

Parents rushed to the school only to find their way blocked by the police lines. Darlene Claiborn said her daughter called her from inside a classroom on a cell phone. "How can this happen in a school?" she demanded. "They have guards in there. They're supposed to have security." Anthony Amato, school system superintendent who has been on the job only since February, tried to calm parents by saying that officers had swept through the school and that the students were safe. He was repeatedly interrupted by cries of "where was the guard?" When Amato said parents could go inside to get their children, the crowd rushed forward and tried to squeeze through the school door in a chaotic crush of pushing and shoving.

Many were still outside four hours later. When a group of adults tried to slip under the police tape, they were shoved back by officers, setting off a round of shouts and complaints. Councilman Oliver Thomas, among city officials who went to the scene, said it was understandable that the parents were upset. "He didn't go through the system. We don't have electrical fences around the building. How do you stop a kid if he wants to get in? He'll find a way." In another unrelated campus shooting Monday, a gun went off in a Shreveport school -- apparently accidentally -- while one student was showing it to another, hitting the second boy in the stomach, officials said. The student who brought the gun ran away, and police were looking for him. The wounded student was in serious condition.

School shooting suspect moved to county jail

March 25, 2001
Web posted at: 11:52 AM EST (1652 GMT)

EL CAJON, California (CNN) -- The high school senior accused of wounding five people in a shooting at a San Diego-area school was in the county jail awaiting arraignment Monday. Jason Hoffman, 18, faces an attempted, premeditated murder count and four counts of assault with a deadly weapon in Thursday's shootings at Granite Hills High School. He was transferred the San Diego County jail Saturday evening and was scheduled to be arraigned Monday afternoon.

Investigators accuse Hoffman of shooting three students and two teachers before being wounded by an El Cajon police officer on the school's campus. He underwent five hours of surgery for gunshot wounds to his face and buttocks at Sharp Memorial Hospital on Thursday and had been hospitalized before being transferred to the jail. As investigators continue to piece together clues about the shooting, a Navy spokesman told CNN that Hoffman had recently been rejected by the Navy.

"He came into the Navy recruitment station, provided information about his background and was told during the interview he was not eligible," spokesman Joe Winton said in San Diego. He would not say when the interview took place, or what prompted the rejection of his application. "We did not gather the information, he provided it to us," Winton said. Authorities still have no motive for the shooting, although El Cajon Police Chief James Davis confirmed a vice principal, Dan Barnes, was the target.

Davis said Hoffman had skipped morning classes. He arrived at the school about 12:55 p.m. (3:55 p.m. ET), armed with a 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun and a .22-caliber pistol, according to police. "When he saw Vice Principal Barnes, he pointed the shotgun at Mr. Barnes and fired one round," Davis said. "Mr. Barnes was able to dive into another doorway and avoid being struck by the pellets. Hoffman then started firing indiscriminately at other people in the attendance quad area." Davis said Hoffman owned both weapons, and officials were investigating who purchased them. Hoffman turned 18 on March 10, making it unlikely he could have purchased the weapons legally.

A search of Hoffman's home turned up a third weapon, a black powder muzzle-loading pistol, and some computers. "We will be examining the computers for any information that may relate to either the motive or the strategy in terms of these shootings," District Attorney Paul Pfingst said. The shooting at the 60-acre Granite Hills High was the second area school shooting in less than a month. Six miles away, authorities said, 15-year-old student killed two and wounded 13 at Santana High School in Santee on March 5. Thursday's shootings occurred about a week after a forum inspired by the Santana shootings was held at Granite Hills on school safety. After the Santee shootings, law enforcement's presence was heightened on all campuses in the Grossmont Union High School District, Superintendent Granger Ward said. That increased presence will remain through the end of next week, he added.

ERFURT, Germany

CNN-- Throughout the night and into Saturday, shocked and grieving residents in the German city of Erfurt laid flowers and candles outside the school where a shooting rampage left 18 dead. A special church service was held Friday night hours after the shooting and flags were lowered to half-staff.

Two female pupils, 13 teachers, a school secretary and a police officer were shot to death by a recently expelled student. Another six people were wounded, police said. They refused to identify the shooter.

"We cannot find words for what we feel in Germany right now," President Johannes Rau said, according to The Associated Press. "Germany is in mourning in the face of these incomprehensible events." The gunman, dressed all in black and armed with a handgun and a pump-action gun, searched corridors, rooms and toilets inside the school, seeking out adults and then gunning them down, police chief Manfred Grube told a news conference.

The bodies were scattered in hallways, classrooms and bathrooms. The dead police officer was shot earlier before the school was stormed, police told CNN. The attack began at about 11 a.m. local time (0900 GMT) Friday. Describing the scene at the Gutenberg Gymnasium School as a "picture of horror," Grube said the 19-year-old gunman fled German special forces as they stormed the building, and then shot himself in a classroom.

Police were fired upon when they first entered the school. They retreated and formed a blockade around it. Police told The Associated Press the gunman was found with 500 rounds of ammunition. Weeping students fled the school, and anxious parents gathered outside.

"I heard shooting and thought it was a joke," Melanie Steinbrueck, 13, told The Associated Press. "But then I saw a teacher dead in the hallway in front of Room 209 and a gunman in black carrying a weapon." Juliane Blank, 13, added: "The guy was dressed all in black -- gloves, cap, everything was black. "He must have opened the door without being heard and forced his way into the classroom. We ran out into the hallways. We just wanted to get out." "It was chilling. I saw this big placard with the word 'Help' on it taped to a window and people moving around behind it, but I couldn't tell if they were children or attackers," a witness told German broadcaster RTL.

A room-by-room search of the school was carried out following reports a second gunman was involved in the shooting, but police believe the gunman acted alone and was spotted by different pupils as he moved to various areas of the school. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's said he was "staggered" by the shooting, and cancelled an election campaign scheduled to begin on Saturday. "It is such an event our imagination is incapable of dealing with it," he said. Local journalist Thomas Rothbart told CNN there was "deep, deep grief in the city."

"All the political parties in Germany are in grief with the city." Students, parents and members of staff hugged each other outside the school, weeping hysterically in the aftermath of the shooting. Scores were treated for shock by doctors and psychologists. Hundreds of armed police wearing bulletproof vests sealed off the building. A tent was set up nearby where parents were informed of the whereabouts of their children. About 750 students aged between 10 and 19 are enrolled at the school, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in December.

NEW BEDFORD, Massachusetts

(CNN) -- A 17-year-old girl was arraigned Tuesday on charges connected with an alleged plot to kill students and teachers at New Bedford High School, according to a spokesman for the city's district attorney.

"(Amy Bowman) was arraigned and is scheduled for a pretrial conference on December 17," Eddie Sirois said.

Sirois could not confirm that Bowman, who was brought to court on a summons, was arraigned on the same charges brought against 17-year-old Eric McKeehan and two juveniles when they were arrested Saturday.

McKeehan and the juveniles, all charged with conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit assault and battery and unlawful possession of ammunition, were ordered held without bail at Monday hearings.

A fifth teen, an unidentified 16-year-old whose involvement in the plot has not been released, was expected to be charged Wednesday.

Unlike the other defendants, Bowman was freed until her next court appearance, December 17.

"Sometimes we have to treat people differently based on the circumstances," prosecutor Raymond Veary said in a report by The Associated Press.

Bowman, like Eric McKeehan, was charged as an adult. The two 15-year-olds were charged in juvenile court.

According to the AP, police said Bowman agreed to smuggle guns in and take part in the shooting, but tipped off her favorite teacher, Rachel Jupin, about the details of the plan because she did not want to see the woman killed.

Authorities took action over the weekend because a letter found by a janitor at the school indicated an attack could take place as early as Monday. Investigators Sunday combed the 3,300-student school for explosives but found none.

At the school, headmaster Joseph Oliver said Tuesday things were "back to normal" after a 40 percent drop in attendance Monday.

The teens are suspected of a plot to shoot faculty and classmates and then kill themselves, police said.

Police said the chain of events leading to the investigation began October 17 after a student approached a faculty member and reported overhearing a bomb threat.

Among the evidence that turned up later were bomb components discovered in an attic and the letter detailing the alleged plot found by a school janitor.

But the mother of one of the suspects said the story has been overblown by overzealous cops, claiming the ammunition found on her son was a souvenir from a hunting trip. The mother of another suspect called it a rumor that took on a life of its own.

Superintendent of Schools Joseph Silva disputed that claim.

"I personally spoke with police who had been involved in the investigation and asked, did they really feel that this was not a prank, a hoax? Was this something legitimate and would some incident come out of this if these arrests were not made? And they assured me absolutely," Silva said. "They felt confident that it would have been an incident if they hadn't persisted with the investigation."

The alleged plot resembles the attack carried out at Columbine High School in 1999, in which two students killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before killing themselves. It was the nation's deadliest school shooting.

In student materials collected by police, "They talked about that they were going to try to outdo Columbine, that they were going to detonate an explosive device, that they were going to shoot students and faculty and eventually commit suicide themselves," New Bedford Police Chief Arthur Kelly said.

Silva said because of emergency plans that are in place at the high school, students "felt comfortable coming forth with concerns that they felt threatened their school."

Crisis counselors were available at the school to answer student and faculty concerns, Silva said.

Friday March 9 7:26 PM ET
Pa. School Reopens After Shooting

By TIMOTHY D. MAY, Associated Press Writer

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) - Students returned to a parochial school Friday to pray for two eighth-grade girls involved in a shooting two days earlier in the crowded cafeteria.``I'm looking forward to putting everything behind me and just getting back to normal,'' said Patrick Buckheit, 15.

Buckheit said he was in the cafeteria Wednesday when 14-year-old Elizabeth Catherine Bush allegedly shot 13-year-old Kimberly Marchese in the shoulder. The suspect's father, Gerald Bush, said Friday that he took his daughter to a range several times in the past six months to shoot paper targets with the same .22-caliber revolver allegedly used in the shooting.

His daughter took the gun, which was not locked up, from his collection, he said. Earlier, he told The Patriot-News of Harrisburg that his daughter ``seemed maybe a little depressed'' that morning. Her attorney has said she endured ``name-calling and slurs and innuendoes,'' some of it by the shooting victim. Kimberly, who went home from the hospital Thursday, said she and the suspect hadn't argued or even spoken for at least a week.

``I just want to ask her why she did it, if I was the target or not,'' Kimberly told ABC's ``Good Morning America.'' ``She sometimes says stuff and then she'll regret it, and I think that's just what happened to her with the shooting.'' The suspect's attorney said the girl sent Kimberly an e-mail a few weeks ago.

``I think the e-mail to Kim was about, 'Why can't we be friends. Let's get past this and move on,''' George Lepley said. Bush was unaware someone had been shot until her mother told her several hours later, Catherine Bush said Friday. ``I am the one who told her somebody had been shot. She said, 'I didn't shoot anybody.' She said 'No, I saw Kim running for the door,''' Catherine Bush said. ``I don't think she realized what happened.''

She said she briefly spoke to her daughter, being held in a juvenile detention center, by telephone Wednesday night. Kimberly did not return to Bishop Neumann Junior-Senior High School on Friday, but her father, Michael Marchese, attended the private prayer service.

``She said, 'I miss my friends, Dad.' But we're going to wait until next week,'' he said. ``I just wanted to go in for a couple minutes to say hello and let them know how she's doing.'' Bush was to remain in the detention center pending psychological evaluation. She was charged as a juvenile with attempted homicide and aggravated assault.

Her parents said their daughter had transferred to the Catholic school to escape harassment at another school where students had thrown stones at her, but problems persisted. The parents, speaking at their home Friday, said she had twice tied to cut her wrist, but the wounds were not serious. ``I think she was in a lot of pain and felt pain from things people were saying to her,'' her mother said.

Kimberly Marchese described her classmate as a disturbed girl with emotional and family problems. ``She wasn't in the best health mentally,'' Kimberly said. ``She told me she used to be able to talk to God, but she told me she doesn't hear him any more.''

Kimberly said the teen had told people a couple of weeks ago that her sister had a blood disease. ``I know she was going through a really hard time,'' she said.

Police said they believe the shooter was a student, but no suspect had been caught. The shooting happened in a classroom being used as a band room, police said. It happened around three hours after the bomb scare that police theorized was an effort to get classes dismissed early for the week. The victims were grazed and not seriously wounded, police said. Though none immediately required hospital care, an ambulance left the school with lights flashing an hour after the shootings.
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BALTIMORE, Maryland -- A student died after being shot three times outside a city high school Wednesday in what police said was a premeditated attack.

A spokeswoman for Johns Hopkins University Hospital said Juan Matthews, 17, died at 2:42 p.m. EST at Johns Hopkins Hospital where he was taken following the shooting at Lake Clifton Eastern High School. Matthews was a 9th grader at the school, police spokesman Kevin Enright said. Matthews was shot with a small-caliber pistol while standing near a flagpole in front of the school's main entrance, police commissioner Edward Norris said. The gun was not recovered.

Two students from another city school were detained for questioning shortly after the 8:45 a.m. shooting on the school grounds, police said. Witnesses said one suspect fled into a wooded area surrounding the school and jumped into a car waiting on the other side. The car was pulled over by police a few blocks away and both suspects were being questioned.

Police would not discuss a possible motive for the shooting. "All I can imagine is that this is something that came from the community and spilled over onto school grounds," said area schools superintendent Barry Williams.

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SANTEE, California (CNN) -- A 15-year-old student killed two classmates at a California high school and wounded another 13 people before his arrest Monday, police said. The shooting occurred about 9:20 a.m. Monday (12:20 p.m. EST) at Santana High School in Santee, California, about 10 miles northeast of San Diego.

One of the victims, Brian Zuchor, 14, was found dead at the school. Randy Gordon, 15, died at nearby Grossmont Hospital, spokeswoman Eileen Cornish said. A witness said the freshman boy arrested in the shooting was smiling when he allegedly emerged from a restroom with a long-barreled gun. "He was looking around, smiling, with his weapon. He fired two more shots and went back in," student John Schardt said.

Student Alicia Zimmer said, "I was probably 10 feet away from some of the victims ... I saw a boy laying on the floor with his face downward. "Everybody was running. A whole lot of people were crying. Nobody knew what really happened," Zimmer said. She said there was a girl nearby with "blood all over her arm" and another with blood on her hand. "Then all of a sudden, we heard more shots going off. It sounded more like a cap gun than anything. It was really scary. Everybody was running."

Andrew Kaforey, a 17-year-old Santana senior, said he ran into the bathroom with a security guard after hearing what sounded like a firecracker or a gunshot. "He pointed the gun right at me, but he didn't shoot," Kaforey said. As he and the guard ran out, the gunman shot the guard in the back, Kaforey said. Authorities with guns drawn arrested the suspect in the bathroom, Schardt said. "Two or three" adults were among the victims, San Diego County Sheriff William Kolender said.

Schardt said he photographed the incident and another student videotaped the scene. Authorities confiscated the students' film and videotape, Schardt said. The 15-year-old suspect is likely to be charged as an adult under California law, San Diego County District Attorney Paul Pfingst said. "Investigators are now putting together the case and are interviewing literally hundreds, hundreds of witnesses," Pfignst said. Fellow students told CNN affiliate KGTV the youth arrested in the shooting was a ninth-grader who had threatened to shoot someone at the school before. "We didn't think he would do it," student Josh Stevens said. KGTV said Stevens was questioned by authorities after giving that account to reporters. A parent said the suspect had spent the night at his house Saturday and had talked about shooting up the school. The man said he confronted the boy, who then said he was joking.

"I said, 'I don't want a Columbine or anything happening around here,'" the parent said, "and now it has because I didn't say anything." Santana High School will be closed Tuesday and counselors will be available at a nearby church, Principal Karen Degaschir said. "This is my worst nightmare," Degaschir said. "I'm very concerned about the students. I'm very concerned about their families right now, and I'm concerned about my staff." Neither Degaschir nor Kolender would comment on a possible reason for the shooting. "We don't know the motive, so we don't know whether it was random or not," Kolender said. The school has about 1,900 students and 80 faculty and staff. One of the wounded was a sheriff's deputy assigned to the school, Sheriff's Department spokesman Ron Reina said. Emergency workers treat a wounded man near the front gate of Santana High School in Santee, California "Our SWAT team is still going through and clearing the campus looking for any additional victims or suspects," San Diego County Sheriff's Department spokesman Pete Carillo said Monday afternoon. But Kolender said there was no other gunman "to our knowledge at this point."

Students were quickly evacuated to a parking lot across the street from the school, police said. Schardt described the scene as "complete chaos. Everyone scrambled." California Gov. Gray Davis said he was "shocked and deeply saddened" by the shootings. Davis' wife Sharon is a Santana High School graduate. In Washington, President Bush offered his condolences "to the teachers and the children whose lives have been turned upside-down right now." Bush called the shooting "a disgraceful act of cowardice," adding, "When America teaches our children right from wrong and teaches values that respect life in our country, we'll be better off." But, he said, "First things are first. And our prayers go out to the families that lost a child today."

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said local law enforcement officials have asked them to assist with the investigation
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Language arts teacher Barry Grunow, 35, a married man with two children, died after he was shot in the face. Police said the boy had been sent home early by another teacher for throwing a  water balloon earlier in the day.  Lt. Raychel Houston, a spokeswoman for the Lake Worth Police Department, said the boy had  apparently returned to school to say goodbye to        some friends when Grunow and the boy exchanged "some words" outside the classroom. When the teacher asked him to leave the classroom, the boy pulled out the gun and fired, she said.

Police Chief William Smith said the suspect "made some comments to the teacher, pulled out a small handgun and fired a single shot."  Amanda Grunwald, 13, who was in Grunow's class, said the teacher was talking to students when he was shot.  "He was standing out in the hall, telling everybody  to go back into class because it wasn't time to be dismissed," she said. "Five seconds later he was  shot."

Police were questioning the boy on Friday night, and one of his parents was at the police station.

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(ABC News) The short ordeal began about 8:45 a.m. Thursday when the boy stood up in his classroom at McKinley Elementary School, in Lisbon, Ohio, pointed the gun at the ceiling and told his fellow students and teacher to get down. Linda Robb, who teaches across the hall from where the incident happened, told ABC’s Good Morning  America that the boy the boy seemed sad and troubled. “He really didn’t have much of an expression on his face at all, sad I would think,” said Robb, one of the teachers who helped to disarm the child. Robb said she managed to take the gun from the boy by convincing him to talk to her.  “I told him that I cared about him, I knew he didn’t  want to hurt anyone,” Robb said. “He got out of his seat. I     took him and held him and he gave me the gun and I put it down.” Dan Kemats, the boy’s teacher, then took the gun and      turned it into the office. “My first priority was to keep the students calm and safe,” Kemats said. No one was hurt and no charges were immediately filed against the boy, who was taken into custody.
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The boy lived with his mother, a younger sibling and a man described as an uncle, according to Genesee County Prosecutor   Arthur Busch, who said weapons were readily available at the home.   Busch said it was possible the mother would  be charged with negligence, and that the person who provided the weapon could face a manslaughter charge.  "What we need to focus on now is how he got that gun," Busch told CNN.   "We need to find out who it is that gave him that gun, and if we can show  that that person was grossly negligent, we'll pursue manslaughter charges against that person."  The boy's father is serving time in the county jail, but Busch said he didn't know the man's criminal charges. Charges against boy are unlikely.   State law allows for adult prosecution of young offenders, but the prosecutor said he  thinks charges are unlikely in this case.

"You have to be old enough to form criminal intent to commit the crime of  murder," Busch said Tuesday night. "The         common law of our country says that a child under the age of 7 is not criminally responsible -- cannot be convicted of a         felony."   However, Busch said someone could face charges for enabling the boy to  get the gun, which officials said had been reported stolen in December and  was in the boy's home.   Investigators searching the home also found a stolen 12-gauge shotgun and other evidence, the prosecutor said, refusing to elaborate.

Did quarrel precede shooting?  At the time of the shooting, most of the 22 students in the classroom had filed into a hallway to head to the library. Just five students -- among them Kayla and the boy -- remained inside as the teacher stood in the doorway.   Police and witnesses said the shooter pulled the handgun from his pants to  show it to other students, first pointing it at another boy, then whirling around  and firing the weapon's only bullet, which hit Kayla.  The boy then ran out of the classroom and into a nearby bathroom, pursued  by a teacher and others who recovered the gun from a trash can.  Law enforcement officials said the shooter and the victim had quarreled the previous day, and parents said the boy had a history of fighting with other students.  A girl who identified herself as a classmate, 6-year-old Haili Durbin,  said Kayla had yelled at the boy  because he spit on her desk and stood on it. Haili was interviewed with her father present.  Asked about the girl's account, Busch said: "I wouldn't take that too  seriously at this point. That's not what we've learned from talking to several witnesses."

Busch said the school had no metal detectors but had "non-police private security" workers who monitored its hallways and its 500 children. Laws already are on the books in Michigan and across the country to keep guns and other weapons off school grounds. "I don't think many districts in the country have focused on security in elementary schools," Busch said.  'There's not much I can do to him'  The boy is by far the youngest gunman in the deadly school shootings that  have rocked communities around the country during the last three years. In 1998, two boys, 11 and 13, opened fire at a middle school in Jonesboro,      Arkansas, killing five.  "Where does it stop? First-graders shooting first-graders. The culture of violence is manifesting itself here with what occurred,"  said Sam Riddle, a spokesman for the family of Isaiah Shoels, who was among 12 students killed by teen-age gunmen at  Columbine High School in Colorado last year. The tragedy of young killers was highlighted last fall in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, where a boy who gunned down a stranger at age 11 was convicted of murder as an adult.        Nathaniel Abraham, one of the youngest murderers in U.S. history, was sentenced in January to a juvenile detention center until he turns 21, after which he will be a free man.   He was the first to be charged with murder under a 1997 Michigan law that    allows children of any age to be prosecuted as adults for serious crimes.  Busch said the difference in ages between Abraham and the Buell  Elementary shooter is significant.  "Nate Abraham was 11 years old; this boy is only 6," he said. "If you're      under a certain age, you can't form the mental intentions to appreciate the consequences of your actions sufficiently enough to be criminally responsible. There's not much I can do to him, other than make sure he's safe and in an environment where he's not inclined to do such hazardous behavior."
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The Associated Press reported the incident took place before the 8 a.m.  start of classes, but it was unclear whether the shooting took place outside or inside the school.   Police gave no other details about the suspect. Lt. Jack Mike, a warden at the Muskogee County Jail, told The Associated Press he believed only one person was responsible for the shooting.

At least one victim was transported by helicopter to St. Francis Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said. Fort Gibson is a rural community of 3,500 people. About 450 students attend the middle school.  A school official said all of the district's 1,850 students would be released early Monday due to the incident.
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"We believe the entire shooting was gang-related," said officer Steve Meriwether, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police  Department. "This wasn't some random act of violence." Meriwether said the two students were waiting around after school "on the fringes" of school property when witnesses said they were approached by two young men and shot with a small caliber handgun. The shooting happened around 2:40 p.m, about 30 minutes after school dismissed.

Two suspects, a 20-year-old male and an 18-year-old male, were taken into custody shortly after the shooting. The two are not students at Clark High, a high school of about 2,350 students on a 32-acre campus about 10 miles southwest of downtown.  Meriwether said the two men were being held on two counts of attempted murder and one count each of robbery with the use of a deadly weapon. He  said the two suspects crashed their car and then tried to steal a nearby juvenile's bicycle at gunpoint before being caught.  School principal Wayne Tanaka told CNN, "My prayers tonight are that no school administrator will have to go through this again."   Mary Stanley-Larsen, a spokeswoman for Clark County schools, expressed  relief the shooting was not more serious. "This was not Columbine," she said. "Thankfully this was not something of that magnitude."
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DEMING, N.M. (AP) - Holding hands and praying, about 150 students and adults formed a human chain halfway around Deming Middle School Monday to remember a 13-year-old girl gunned down on campus last week. Candles, red roses and a half-dozen teddy bears adorned the school grounds for the vigil in memory of Araceli Tena, who died of a bullet wound to the back of her head.

A fellow student, Victor Cordova Jr. of Palomas, Mexico, is charged with the Friday shooting. Erica Orozco, 11, a seventh-grader whose locker was next to Araceli's, said she wanted to return Monday ''to see how all my other friends are, to  get used to coming back.'' She did not witness the shooting, but said, ''I feel like it's going to happen again. I feel very scared.''   ''You don't know how to cope with something like this here,'' said Mary Alvarado, 35, whose 11-year-old daughter, Amanda, attends the school. ''Eventually, we'll get over it, but this is way overwhelming for everybody.''

Superintendent Carlos Viramontes said 40 to 50 counselors were available on campus Monday when classes resumed. It wasn't immediately known how many of the schools' 750 students were in attendance. Some parents wanted Deming to remain closed until after the Thanksgiving holiday.  One of the students' classmates said in Sunday's Albuquerque Journal that        Cordova had boasted the day before the shooting that he would open fire on his school. Richard Ramirez said Cordova brought .22-caliber bullets to Deming Middle School to show them off Thursday, the day before police say he shot Tena.   ''He (Cordova) told us, 'Watch, I'm going to make history blasting this school,''' the 13-year-old told the newspaper.  Ramirez said he did not report the incident to school authorities because he  feared Cordova would seek revenge. ''I was scared,'' he said.

Victor Cordova Sr. said his son told him during a visit at the Luna County  Juvenile Detention Center in Deming that he had planned to kill himself, but his arm was bumped and the loaded .22 caliber Colt revolver he held  discharged. Police said they had no information that would corroborate that  version of events.  The boy's family said he has experienced several difficult years dealing with depression, a violent temper and the loss of his 31-year-old mother, Emma Armendaris, who died of cancer in February.  Police declined to comment on Ramirez's statement and would not discuss where the younger Cordova obtained the gun.  The boy - police said he is 13, but family members say he is 12 - has been charged with attempted murder, and various assault counts. Police said the charges would likely be amended because of the girl's death. Under state law, children under 14 years old cannot be charged as adults.  The boy lives in Palomas and commutes to school 33 miles away in          Deming. He has dual citizenship because he was born in Deming, and he is one of many children living in Palomas who are allowed to cross the border each day to attend classes in Luna County.  Tena was the oldest of three children, her uncle Beto Tena said.  ''She was a very good girl,'' he said in Spanish. ''She was the best girl she could be. Her brother and sister are very sad. They don't even want to eat
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6 injured in Georgia high school shooting Shooter in custody

School: 'We had no reason to suspect' him

15-year-old sophomore [Thomas "T.J." Solomon Jr.] who opened fire Thursday at Heritage High School in suburban Atlanta,  wounding six students, later broke down in tears as he surrendered to an assistant principal.   The most seriously injured student, Stephanie Laster, 15, underwent  surgery for a bullet that hit her in the buttocks and passed through to her intestines. The five others -- four boys and a girl -- had only superficial wounds. Two boys were released after receiving  hospital treatment.

 The gunman, whose name has not been released because of his age, was being held at the Rockdale County Sheriff's department. His parents, said  by one deputy to be "in a state of shock," also were there.  School Superintendent Donald Peccia said the sophomore had not been in  trouble before. "We had no reason to suspect this student at all," he said.

Two weapons recovered Rockdale County Sheriff Jeff Wigington said two weapons were recovered,  a handgun and a .22-caliber rifle. Authorities were investigating how the  gunman obtained them. The school was searched for bombs as a precaution but no explosive  devices were found. There was no immediate word on a  motive for the shootings, which came   just before the start of classes on the last day of school for seniors at  Heritage.

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The boy, who was not identified because he is a juvenile, fired four shots from a .22-caliber rifle at W.R. Myers high school on Wednesday, police said, killing 17-year-old Jason Lang. Lang's friend, Shane Christmas, also17, was listed in fair to serious condition Thursday at a hospital after surgery.

The shooting came just eight days after an attack on a Colorado high school left 14 students and one teacher dead, and it sent shock waves through the small farming community of Taber, about 110 miles (175 km) southeast of Calgary, Alberta.

Police refused to speculate whether Wednesday's shooting -- reported to be  the first fatal Canadian high school shooting in 20 years -- was influenced by the Colorado attack. They said they were conducting a thorough  investigation and could not release full details until their probe was complete.

Many of the 400 students at the school scattered and others hid behind  desks when the gunfire erupted moments after lunch hour on Wednesday.  'He was shot point-blank'

Greg Tomcala, 14, said he watched in horror as a boy aimed a rifle at a student sitting against a locker doing schoolwork. "I looked down the hall and I saw him shoot one kid," Tomcala said. "He was shot point-blank in the chest. He fell to the ground and then crawled away." The bespectacled boy with the rifle then shot another student, who hobbled down the hallway.

More information at http://www.prayerbook.ca/pblam222.htm
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 Authorities identified Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, as the two teen-agers in black trench coats who laughed and     hooted as they opened fire on classmates in their suburban Denver high school, killing 15 or 16 people,  including themselves, in America's  worst instance of school violence.  Steve Davis, a spokesman for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, also told reporters that police found "about 10 to 11 explosive devices" in both Columbine  High School and in the parking lot of   the Littleton, Colorado, school.

 In Memory of Victims at Columbine High School Littleton, Colorado April 20, 1999:

                  Cassie Bernall        Steven Curnow                    Corey Depooter
                  Kelly Fleming         Matthew Ketcher                 Daniel Mauser
                  Daniel Rohrbough   William "Dave" Sanders        Rachel Scott
                  Isaiah Shoels           John Tomlin                         Lauren Townsend
                  Kyle Velasquez

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On May 21, 1998, a 15-year-old boy who was suspended from school brought three guns Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon. The boy  opened fire in the school cafeteria, killing students Mikael Nickolauson and  Ben Walker and injuring twenty-four others before he was tackled by  17-year-old Jake Ryker who was one of the wounded. Several others  quickly piled on the killer, ending the rampage. In a later search of the killer's  home, authorities found the bodies of his parents, Bill and Faith Kinkel, who  had been shot on May 20th, together with bombs and bomb-making  materials.

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April 24, 1998:

A student from James W. Parker school in Edinboro, Pa., after science teacher John Gillette was shot and killed by another student.

EDINBORO, Pa. (AP) - Most of the tears in Edinboro have been shed for a father of three, a teacher gunned down at a dance he organized for students. But there are also prayers for the 14-year-old murder suspect. "The one who needs the most help isn't here tonight. He's sitting in a jail cell,'' said Adam Stickle, a high school student who urged 350 people at a Sunday night vigil to pray for young Andrew Wurst and his parents.

The lawyer remarks of his young client, "He's devastated." At a memorial service for the slain teacher, the Rev. Robert Schmidt urged his congregation to avoid blaming any one.

James Strand, a banquet hall owner who was worried about the safety of his family, confronted the shooter and coaxed him into dropping his gun and giving up peacefully. Instrumental to the success of this persuasion was the shotgun in Mr. Strand's hands, aimed at the killer.

 JONESBORO, Arkansas (CNN) -- Two boys, 11 and 13, wearing camouflage and lying in wait nearby, opened fire on     middle school students Tuesday as they assembled outside during a false fire alarm. At least four people were killed and about 10 others were wounded.

It was not clear from early reports whether the dead were all students, although at least two were girls.  Craighead County Sheriff Dale Haas wept as he reported that  "There are 15 students shot ... mostly little girls. The two young boys believed to be the shooters, one of them was 11 and the other 13."  The suspects were taken into custody after the 12:40 p.m. shooting. Authorities refused to say whether they were students at the school.

Haas said the suspects fired on the students and teachers while lying in woods nearby.  He said they were taken to  the county jail, and that two  rifles and other weapons were  recovered.
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On the morning of the shootings, school principal Bill Bond was on the phone when he heard three loud pops followed             by a pause. "Then it changed," he recalls. Seven shots came  out in perfect rhythm before another pause intervened.             Recognizing the sound of semiautomatic gunfire, Bond jumped from his desk. He could hear crying and moaning.             Dashing into the lobby, he saw bodies and blood on the ground--and by the cream-colored walls, a .22 Ruger on the             floor and two students face to face. Bond kicked the gun  away.
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At 8 a.m. on Oct. 1, Luke Woodham, 16, bookish and overweight, drove a  white Chevy Corsica up to his high school. That was already a sign of trouble:

the young man had poor vision and was driven to school every day by his  mother. But three hours earlier that morning, Mary Ann Woodham, 50, had  been stabbed to death with a butcher knife in the home she shared with her  son. Luke Woodham walked into Pearl High's commons, an enclosure  created by the school's buildings. He then took a .30-.30 rifle from beneath his blue trench coat and opened fire, wounding seven schoolmates and killing two, Lydia Kaye Dew, 17, and Christina Menefee, 16, a girl he once dated.   He was subdued by assistant principal Joel Myrick, who pulled a .45-cal.   pistol from his car and ordered the gunman to the ground. "Mr. Myrick," said  Woodham, "I was the guy who gave you the discount on the pizza the other  night." Woodham had been hoping to make the assistant manager's program  at the local Domino's.
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