Kentucky school shooting leaves two students dead, 17 injured
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A 15-year-old student has opened fire with a handgun inside his rural Kentucky high school, killing two classmates, injuring 17 others and sending hundreds fleeing for safety.
Key points:
- Shooter opened fire just before morning classes were to start
- Students run for lives down street
- First fatal school shooting of 2018
Police were seen leading the teenager away in handcuffs after the attack at Marshall County High School, which was America's first fatal school shooting of 2018.
The shooter will be charged with murder and attempted murder, Kentucky police said.
"He was apprehended by the sheriff's department here on site, at the school, thankfully before any more lives could be taken," officer Michael Webb said.
Police did not release any identities, nor did they describe a motive. Mr Webb said detectives were looking into the shooter's home and background.
Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin said the suspect was a 15-year-old boy.
Students ran for their lives as the student began shooting inside an atrium just before morning classes would have begun.
Many jumped into cars or ran down the highway, some not stopping until they reached a McDonald's restaurant about two kilometres 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."
Ambulances and numerous police cars converged on the school, along with officers in black fatigues carrying assault rifles.
A 15-year-old girl died at the scene, and a boy, also 15, died later at a hospital, Mr Bevin said, adding that all of the victims are believed to be students.
He said 15 of those injured suffered bullet wounds.
"This is a wound that is going to take a long time to heal," Mr 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.
AP/Reuters
Topics: crime, law-crime-and-justice, police, united-states
