Everything we know about St Louis school shooting that left three dead
A gunman shot and killed two victims at a St Louis high school before being fatally shot by police officers at the scene and dying later at a hospital.
News video captured students fleeing for safety as the incident took place at the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in south St Louis, Missouri, on Monday morning.
Police respond to shooting
The St Louis Metropolitan Police Department dispatched officers to the scene at 9.10am after the alarm was raised.
Lieutenant Colonel Michael Sack, the interim chief of the St. Louis Police Department, told reporters that it took just a few minutes for officers to reach the high school near the intersection of Kingshighway and Arsenal, per local news Fox3 Now.
The outlet reported that officers immediately entered the school building and students evacuating the scene told them that the male shooter had a long gun. The police chief added that officers heard gunfire and rushed towards it, engaging the gunman when they located him.
After exchanging gunfire, the suspect was hit and was taken to hospital where he died. No police officers were hurt in the incident.
Investigators later found the gunman’s car and were searching it for evidence.
Teacher described what happened inside school
David Williams, a math teacher at the school, told The St Louis Post-Dispatch that the school principal came over the loudspeaker around 9am and said the code word for an active shooter being in the building.
Mr Williams told the outlet he heard multiple shots outside his classroom, and one of the windows on the classroom door was shot out. He then heard a man say, “You are all going to f***ing die.”
What is known about the shooter?
Officials initially described the suspect as a slim male in his 20s. The gunman has not yet been named and no motive has been released for the violence.
On Monday night the gunman was identified as former pupil Orlando Harris.
Harris, 19, of St Louis, was himself fatally shot by responding police officers at the city’s Central VPA High School, on Monday morning, according to The St Louis Post-Dispatch.
Taniya Gholston, 16, a student at CVPA, told The St Louis Post-Dispatch that she did not recognise the gunman and escaped when his gun jammed. She told the newspaper that she heard him say something about being “sick of this d**n school.”
Who are the victims?
Eight individuals were hurt in total during the shooting.
This includes an adolescent girl who was shot and died at the scene, as well as an adult woman who was declared dead from gunshot wounds at a hospital.
The other victims sustained a range of gunshot and shrapnel wounds, as well as cardiac arrest.
On Monday afternoon the family of the teacher killed in the shooting identified her as Jean Kuczka, according to The St Louis Post-Dispatch.
Relatives told the newspaper that Kuczka, 61, was a health and physical education teacher who lived in Dittmer, Missouri.
“My mom loved kids,” her daughter Abigail Kuczka told the newspaper. “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.”
Sixteen-year-old student Alexis Bell was pronounced dead at the scene. The identities of the victims have not been formally confirmed yet by officials.
What is Central Visual and Performing Arts High School?
The school where the shooting took place is a magnet school specialising in visual art, musical art and performing art with about 400 students.
The district website says the school’s “educational program is designed to create a nurturing environment where students receive a quality academic and artistic education that prepares them to compete successfully at the post-secondary level or perform competently in the world of work.”
