Tag Archives: School Shooting

Georgia community turns to God after school shooting; shooter already on law enforcement radar

Students-prayer-circle-end-zone

Important Takeaways:

  • Fourteen-year-old Colt Gray will be charged with murder and tried as an adult after police say he killed four people and wounded nearly 30 others at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia Wednesday.
  • The boy was already on law enforcement radar since May of last year when he and his father were interviewed by authorities after the FBI received anonymous tips from fellow gamers that the boy threatened to commit a school shooting. Gray denied it.
  • Although his father admitted to having hunting rifles in the home, he said his son did not have unsupervised access to the weapons. No probable cause was found and no arrest was made.
  • Students retreated to the football field where many formed a circle in the end zone praying and holding hands.
  • Terrified parents rushed to the school, many already communicating with their children. One mother texted her daughter the Lord’s Prayer. Others spoke by phone.
  • Wednesday evening a number of prayer meetings took place at various churches and other locations in the community.
  • “We have a wonderful, wonderful community of faith here, tremendous churches that are right now beginning that process of how to help people through this and minister to people,” he said. “We live in a fallen, sinful world, and because of that, unfortunately tragedies like this are going to take place.”
  • “We’re always wanting to drive people back to the reality that there is a God who deeply loves us, who mourns over this, but who also offers redemption and salvation and hope in the midst of such tragedy,” he said. “Life, the Bible says, is like a vapor, and we do not know how long we have, and we do not know when that life will come to an end in this physical body. But we do know that if we’ve trusted in Christ, and we have salvation that is granted to us by grace through faith in Him, then our hope is secure.”
  • Sheriff Smith ended his remarks at a Wednesday afternoon news conference by saying, “Hate will not prevail in this county. I want that to be very clear and known. Love will prevail over what happened today.”

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Nashville Christian school targeted in shooting leaving 3 children and 3 adults dead

Covenant School Shooting

Mathew 24:12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

Important Takeaways:

  • Shooting at Nashville Christian school leaves 3 children and 3 adults dead, officials say
  • A 28-year-old shooter, with two semiautomatic weapons and a handgun, opened fire inside The Covenant School, police said. The school serves preschool to sixth grade.
  • A heavily armed former student shot through a locked school door before killing three children and three staff members
  • In addition to the three 9-year-old students, the 28-year-old attacker fatally wounded a custodian, a substitute teacher and the head of school before being killed by responding officers
  • “There were maps drawn of the school, in detail of surveillance, entry points”

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3 dead at Michigan State University as 5 are injured; police continue investigating motive

Mark 13:12 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death.

Important Takeaways:

  • Michigan State shooter who killed 3 students, injured 5 identified as Anthony McRae
  • Campus police say two people were killed at Berkey Hall and another was killed at the MSU Union, while five people were in critical condition at Sparrow Hospital. The shooter eventually killed himself, police announced early Tuesday.
  • The gunfire began around 8:18 p.m., inside Berkey Hall on the northern boundary of campus, prompting the school to send out a shelter-in-place order at 8:31 p.m.
  • After shots were fired inside Berkey Hall, the suspect walked to the MSU Union and opened fire, police said.
  • Michigan State University Police Deputy Chief Chris Rozman told reporters Tuesday that “We have absolutely no idea what the motive was at this point” for the mass shooting
  • We can confirm that the 43-year-old suspect had no affiliation to the university,” he said. “He was not a student, faculty, staff, current or previous.”
  • So that’s an unknown right now. And that’s what we’re trying to understand is why this incident occurred,” Rozman added. “I know everybody wants to know what the motive is. We don’t have an answer right now. And that’s the honest truth.”

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Gunfire at North Carolina middle school football game, 13 year old hailed as hero for protecting teacher

Teen Saves Teacher Shooting

Matthew 24:12 – “And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

Important Takeaways:

  • North Carolina 13-year-old hailed as hero for protecting teacher during shooting: ‘I was a part of his team’
  • Robeson County Schools District said St. Paul’s Middle and the Lumberton Jr. High teams were playing against each other in a championship game when gunfire erupted in the parking lot
  • Despite the tragic occurrence, Weller [teacher] commended Holloman [the boy] for his courage and quick thinking during the time of the shooting.
  • Tre Britt, a Robeson County school board member, released a statement on the shooting, praising the teams for their smart and fast-acting response to the harrowing incident.
  • Police say agencies including the ATF are investigating.

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Uvalde High School Student goes on rampage after argument with grandmother for failing to graduate

2 Timothy 3:1-5 “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.”

Important Takeaways:

  • At least NINETEEN primary school children shot dead by ‘bullied’ high school student, 18, who posted photos of rifles on Instagram and went on the rampage ‘after an argument with his grandmother about failing to graduate’
  • Nineteen pupils aged between seven and 11 are dead after another mass shooting at an elementary school
  • A number of others were also hurt in the attack, but the exact figure remained unclear
  • Joe Biden condemned the killings and opened gun control debate, urging voters to ‘turn this pain into action’
  • The United States suffered 19,350 firearm homicides in 2020, up nearly 35 percent compared to 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its latest data.

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School Shooting in Uvalde Texas Leaves 22 Dead

2 Timothy 3:1-5 “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.”

Important Takeaways:

  • Uvalde, Texas school shooting leaves 19 children, 3 adults, including shooter dead
  • An 18-year-old high school student killed at least 19 children and two teachers during the tragic attack at Robb Elementary School in Texas, prompting responses to increase safety in the final weeks of the school year.
  • Suspected gunman Salvador Ramos, a Uvalde resident, acted alone, according to authorities.
  • Ramos had a handgun and possibly a rifle when he opened fire

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Data shows 27 School Shootings have occurred this year

2 Timothy 3:1-5 “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.”

Important Takeaways:

  • 27 school shootings have taken place so far this year
  • Education Week has been tracking school shootings since 2018. According to its database, 119 such incidents have taken place since then.
  • There were 27 school shootings with injuries or deaths this year.
  • This comes just 10 days after a shooting at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., that took the lives of 10 people.
  • Defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people were shot or killed, excluding the shooter.
  • The U.S. ended 2021 with 693 mass shootings, per the Gun Violence Archive. The year before saw 611. And 2019 had 417.

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Michigan school shooting ‘entirely preventable’, says $100-million federal lawsuit

Reuters) – A deadly shooting rampage at a Michigan high school last week was “entirely preventable,” according to a $100 million federal lawsuit filed on Thursday against the Michigan school district and its employees.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Riley Franz, 17, who was shot in the neck, and her sister Bella, 14, who was next to her when she was shot in the Nov. 30 incident at Oxford High School in suburban Oakland County, some 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Detroit.

The girls’ parents, Jeffrey and Brandi Franz, also are listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division.

Riley Franz was among 6 students and a teacher seriously injured in the gunfire that killed 4 students.

Ethan Crumbley, a 15-year-old student, was being held without bail after he was charged as an adult in the attack, the deadliest U.S. school shooting of 2021.

His parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, who gave him the gun as an early Christmas present and are accused of then ignoring warning signs that he was planning a shooting at the high school, were charged with involuntary manslaughter and were being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.

The lawsuit was filed against Oxford Community School District, superintendent Timothy Throne, principal Steven Wolf, dean of students Ryan Moore, two unnamed teachers and two unnamed counselors.

The district did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The lawsuit seeks $100 million on behalf of the Franz parents, and Riley – described as a 12th grade honor roll student preparing to enter college – and Bella, said to be a 9th grade star athlete getting ready for driver’s training.

“The horror of November 30, 2021 was entirely preventable,” said the lawsuit filed by Michigan personal injury attorney Geoffrey Fieger.

“Each and every defendant named herein created and increased the dangers then-existing at Oxford High School. The individually named Defendants are each responsible through their actions for making the student victims less safe.”

Among the many detailed accusations in the 44-page lawsuit were several detailing Ethan Crumbley’s threats of violence on social media as well as his search for ammunition on his cell phone.

Throne and Wolf reviewed social media posts and were aware of the ammunition search reported by a teacher prior to the shooting, the lawsuit said. Still, they reassured all parents by email and other correspondence that their children were safe at Oxford, the lawsuit said.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Michigan teen charged with 1st-degree murder, held without bond in shooting spree

 

By Brendan O’Brien and Peter Szekely

(Reuters) – A Michigan teenager was ordered held without bond on Wednesday after being charged with first-degree murder in the deadliest U.S. school shooting of the year, which killed four students and wounded seven other people.

Ethan Crumbley, a 15-year-old sophomore at a high school in Oxford, Michigan, about 40 miles (65 km) north of Detroit, was charged with a slew of criminal counts in Tuesday’s shooting spree, Oakland County Prosecuting Attorney Karen McDonald said.

“I am absolutely sure after reviewing evidence that it isn’t even a close call,” she told a briefing. “It was absolutely premeditated.”

In addition to four counts of first-degree murder, Crumbley faces one count of terrorism causing death, seven counts of assault with intent to murder and 12 counts of possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony, she said.

The shooting spree was the deadliest on U.S. school property this year, according to Education Week. It was the latest in a decades-long string of deadly American school shootings.

Crumbley, who is being charged as an adult, appeared on Wednesday at an online arraignment where Judge Nancy Carniak ordered him held without bond at the Oakland County Jail.

At the arraignment, Lieutenant Tim Willis of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said investigators had found videos that Crumbley recorded the night before in which he talked about shooting and killing students.

“Further, a journal was recovered from Ethan’s backpack also detailing his desire to shoot up the school to include murdering students,” Willis said.

Crumbley opened fire at Oxford High School with a semi-automatic handgun – which his father had purchased four days earlier – after emerging from a restroom shortly before 1 p.m. EST (1700 GMT) on Tuesday, authorities said.

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said Crumbley did not appear to be targeting any specific people during the shooting spree.

Three students hit by gunfire – Tate Myre, 16, Hana St. Juliana, 14, and Madisyn Baldwin, 17 – died on Tuesday, the sheriff’s office said. The fourth, 17-year-old Justin Shilling, died on Wednesday.

Of the six students and one teacher who were wounded, three students remained hospitalized late on Wednesday afternoon, including a 17-year-old girl in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the chest, the sheriff’s office said. Four others, including the teacher, have been discharged.

MOTIVE UNCLEAR

Bouchard told a briefing that investigators have yet to determine a motive for the shooting, adding that there was no evidence Crumbley had been bullied.

But he said school officials had contact with Crumbley the day before the shooting and another meeting with him and his parents on the morning of the shooting “for behavior in the classroom that they felt was concerning.”

“The content of that meeting, obviously, is part of the investigation, but we did not learn of that meeting nor the content of that meeting until after the shooting and during this investigation,” he said.

More than 50,000 people had signed an online petition as of Wednesday morning to rename the school’s stadium after Myre, who played on Oxford High’s football team, saying he tried to disarm the shooter.

“Tate is not just a hero to his fellow students at Oxford High School but a legend, his act of bravery should be remembered forever and passed down through generations,” the petition on Change.org said.

Bouchard credited swift action by his deputies for preventing greater loss of life, saying they arrived on the scene within minutes and moved straight toward the sound of gunshots. Crumbley, who did not resist, was disarmed and taken into custody minutes after the shooting began, he said.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago and Peter Szekely in New York; Additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles and Tyler Clifford in New York and Kat Jackson in Washington; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Peter Cooney)

Deadly Michigan school shooting baffles police as young suspect keeps silent

By Steve Gorman and Brendan O’Brien

(Reuters) – Investigators were reviewing video and reading the writings of a 15-year-old boy on Wednesday as they sought clues to what drove him to go on a deadly shooting spree at his high school north of Detroit, where he killed three fellow classmates.

The suspect, whose name was withheld by officials because he is a minor, opened fire on Tuesday with a handgun his father had purchased four days earlier, killing three students in Oxford, Michigan, about 40 miles (65 km) from Detroit.

Tate Myre, 16, died in a patrol car en route to a hospital. Hanna St. Julian, 14 and Madisyn Baldwin, 17, were also killed in the shooting. A teacher and seven other students were wounded, some critically, authorities said.

“It’s clear that he came out with the intent to kill people,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in an interview on CNN on Wednesday.

“He was shooting people at close range, oftentimes towards the head and chest. … It’s just absolutely coldhearted murders,” he said, adding that the shooter fired at least 30 shots.

Bouchard said investigators were poring over writings of the shooter they obtained in the middle of the night that contain “some of his thoughts.” They were also watching surveillance videos of the incident.

“We can’t get the motive from the suspect that we have in custody, but we think we’ve got a path to get a lot of supportive information as to how and why this occurred,” he said.

The incident was the latest in a decades-long string of deadly U.S. school shootings that will likely fuel debates about gun control and mental health care, with many states allowing easy access to firearms while mental health disorders often go untreated.

The suspect was armed with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun his father had purchased on Nov. 26, along with three 15-round magazines. Seven live rounds remained in the gun when the youth was arrested, the sheriff said late on Tuesday.

The suspect was disarmed and taken into custody by sheriff’s deputies minutes after the shooting began. He declined to speak with investigators after his parents retained a lawyer and denied authorities permission to interview their son, Bouchard said.

“The person who’s got the most insight on motive is not talking,” the sheriff said.

Bouchard said he was unaware of any previous run-ins with law enforcement by the suspect, a high school sophomore, adding that investigators had so far seen nothing to suggest a history of disciplinary problems or threats.

He said forensic technicians were collecting evidence from the crime scene, while detectives began collecting video footage from security cameras mounted around the school and interviewing witnesses and those acquainted with the suspect.

The sheriff said a search warrant was executed at the suspect’s home in Oxford and his cellphone was seized.

THREE DEAD, EIGHT WOUNDED

Bouchard credited swift action by his deputies for preventing greater loss of life, saying they arrived on the scene within minutes and moved straight toward the sound of gunshots.

Officers confronted the young assailant advancing down a hallway toward them with a loaded weapon, and he put his hands over his head and surrendered, Bouchard said.

The precise sequence of events during the violence remained unclear, but police believe the student carried the weapon into school in a backpack, the sheriff said.

“The only information I have is that he came out of a bathroom with a weapon, and I don’t know where he went first,” Bouchard said.

Prosecutors will decide what charges to bring and whether the suspect should be treated as an adult or juvenile, the sheriff said.

The boy, who was unharmed, was being detained in a special cell under suicide watch at a juvenile detention center, Oakland County Executive David Coulter said.

Of the seven other students struck by gunfire, three of them – a 15-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to the head and two girls with chest wounds, aged 14 and 17 – were hospitalized in critical condition, Bouchard said. The younger girl was on a ventilator after surgery.

The four remaining teenage victims – three boys and a girl – were listed in serious or stable condition, he said

One teacher was treated for a shoulder wound and later discharged.

The boy apparently “had been shooting” the gun before Tuesday’s attack and had posted pictures of the weapon and a target he was using, according to the sheriff.

(By Steve Gorman in Los Angeles and Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Jonathan Oatis)