And the death toll at Freeman High School south of Spokane might have been even higher if the shooter’s first weapon hadn’t jammed at the outset, Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said. Another student has been taken into custody.
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The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office tweeted that multiple deputies and medical personnel are on scene.
The Providence Sacred Heart hospital reported taking in three people in their “mid-teens” from the shooting. Initially, SCSO said the three were in serious condition.
Michael Moore, chief of surgery, said eight surgery sites are open for the victims.
KHQ reports that a “suspect is detained”. Now the family is asking for help in their time of loss.
Authorities didn’t immediately release the ages of the victims. He proceeded to take his weapons out.
Knezovich declined to identify the suspect or discuss what may have motivated the gun violence in detail but said: “It sounds like a case of a bullying-type of situation”.
The student who died, according to Knezovich, attempted to dissuade the suspect from opening fire by engaging him.
That same student told us the shooter was also obsessed with school shootings and documentaries about them.
The Spokesman says in their report that the first call across police radio was, “Freeman High School”.
“The threat from the shooter has been eliminated.”
All schools in the Spokane district were placed on lockdown as a precautionary measure.
“‘I got into school, and I have a locker on the freshman floor, on the second floor”, said Elisa. The lockdown was lifted at 11:25 a.m.
Meanwhile, the minute-long carnage had prompted the lock down of a dozen schools in neighbouring districts.
The shooting began “shortly after 10 a.m.”, the Spokesman-Review reports.
“At Freeman elementary now”.
A photo posted on Twitter shows students cowering in a classroom as the gunman roams the corridors.
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“I thought I was going to be shot, because the girl right next to me was shot”, she said. The school had just held a lockdown drill the day before, the student said, adding that he was in the locker room – on the other side of the school – when the shooting occurred.
