A 15-year-old boy opened fire with a handgun just before classes started at his high school in rural western Kentucky on Tuesday, 23 January, killing two fellow students and wounding a dozen other youths before he was arrested, the state's governor and police said.
The shooter, who has not been identified, entered a common area at Marshall County High School in Benton shortly before 8 am (7:30 pm IST), pulled out a pistol and began firing at students, witnesses told local media.
The suspect will be charged with two counts of murder and multiple counts of attempted murder, the Kentucky State Police said. Police have not released a motive for the shooting but said they believed the gunman acted alone.
The students killed were Bailey Hope, a 15-year-old girl, and Preston Cope, a 15-year-old boy, state police said. Five of the victims were in critical condition, police said, but hospital officials said they expected all those injured in the incident to survive.
I see this guy draw from his side and he pulls out a pistol. I didn’t even know what was going on. And then it registered. About the time it registered, this guy was sitting here pulling the trigger into all of us.Bryson Conkwright, student to TV station WKRN
"I can hear the gunshots. He was shooting in our group," said Conkwright, showing where a bullet grazed his hand.
At least one hospitalised student suffered a broken jaw from falling and being trampled while trying to escape, Marshall County prosecutor Jeff Edwards said in a phone interview.
Edwards toured the school where he, his wife and their children all graduated from, describing signs of the scramble to flee from the gunfire.
Backpacks, cellphones and clothes were strewn in the main area where the shooting occurred, he said.
“When it happened, apparently everyone left everything laying,” Edwards said. “It made it real, seeing the disarray."
(This story has been edited for length.)
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