Update AND CORRECTION from AP 3:06 p.m.
A 15-year-old student opened fire with a handgun inside his rural Kentucky high school Tuesday, killing two classmates, injuring 17 others and sending hundreds fleeing for safety.
Police were seen leading a teenager away in handcuffs. It was the nation’s first fatal school shooting of 2018.
The shooter will be charged with murder and attempted murder, Kentucky State Police Lt. Michael Webb said.
“He was apprehended by the sheriff’s department here on site, at the school, thankfully before any more lives could be taken,” Webb said.
Police did not release any identities, nor did they describe a motive. Webb said detectives are looking into his home and background.
Students ran for their lives as the student began shooting inside an atrium just before morning classes would have begun at Marshall County High School. Many jumped into cars or ran down the highway, some not stopping until they reached a McDonald’s restaurant more than a mile away. Parents left their cars on both sides of an adjacent road, desperately trying to find their teenagers.
“They was running and crying and screaming,” said Mitchell Garland, who provided shelter to between 50 and 100 students inside his nearby business. “They was just kids running down the highway. They were trying to get out of there.”
A half-dozen ambulances and numerous police cars converged on the school, along with officers in black fatigues carrying assault rifles. Federal authorities responded, and Sen. Mitch McConnell sent staffers. Gov. Matt Bevin rushed from the Capitol to the scene.
Two 15-year-olds were killed: A girl died at the scene, and a boy died later at a hospital, the governor said, adding that all of the victims are believed to be students. He said 12 of those injured suffered bullet wounds. Five were flown about 120 miles (193 kilometers) to Nashville, Tennessee’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center, spokeswoman Tavia Smith said.
“This is a wound that is going to take a long time to heal,” Bevin said.
The attack marked the year’s first fatal school shooting, 23 days into 2018, according to data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive, which relies on media reports and other information. The anti-violence group Everytown for Gun Safety has counted at least 283 shootings at schools since 2013.
Bevin said earlier in a statement that “It is unbelievable that this would happen in a small, close-knit community like Marshall County.”
update: 12:35 p.m.
Matt Bevin says two people have been killed and 19 injured in a shooting at a high school in southwest Kentucky.
Of the 19 injured, Bevin says 14 of those were gunshot wounds.
Bevin also said the suspect in the Tuesday morning shooting at Marshall County High School is a 15-year-old male student who will be charged with murder.
10:50 a.m.
Authorities say seven people have been taken to hospitals following a fatal shooting at a Kentucky high school.
Darlene Lynn of Marshall County Emergency Management tells WDRB-TV that some of the wounded were flown by helicopter for medical treatment.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center spokeswoman Tavia Smith says two patients from the shooting were being taken to a hospital in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Tuesday morning shooting at Marshall County High School in southwest Kentucky has left one person dead and others wounded. A suspect has been taken into custody.
___
10:30 a.m.
A business owner says he saw nearly 100 students running out of a Kentucky high school seeking safety from a deadly shooting.
Mitchell Garland says he rushed outside of his business near Marshall County High School when he heard about the shooting Tuesday morning. He says the students were running, crying and screaming.
Garland says his own son, a 16-year-old sophomore, jumped into someone's car and sped away, then made his way to his dad's office.
