Two people were killed in a mass shooting at a high school in Missouri, police said.
The violence took place shortly after 9am at Central VPA High School in St Louis, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Sack, the interim chief of the St Louis Police Department, said. Police located the shooter, a 20-year-old male, minutes after shots were reported and he was fatally shot by officers after engaging in gunfire.
Eight victims who sustained injuries ranging from gunshot wounds to cardiac arrest were transported to a hospital. An adult woman and a female student, whose body is still inside the building, have been pronounced dead.
Investigators on the scene have located the gunman’s car and are searching it for evidence. A bomb squad is assisting the search.
Mr Sack said that the school was locked, and seven security guards were at the scene at the time of the shooting. Law enforcement knows the shooter’s relationship with the school but that information is not being released yet, Mr Sack said.
A student also told KMOV-TV that they were in a dance class when a male with a “long gun” stormed inside the room and asked, “Are you ready to die?”
Another student, 16-year-old Taniya Gholston, recounted the moments of fear as she made eye contact with the gunman.
“All I heard was two shots and he came in there with a gun,” Ms Gholston told the St Louis Post-Dispatch. “And I was trying to run and I couldn’t run. Me and him made eye contact but I made it out because his gun got jammed. But we saw blood on the floor.”
St Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones said at the scene that it was “heartbreaking” for her to witness “as a mother.”
“My son [called and] said, ‘Mommy, you sound stressed.’ I’m stressed and I’m heartbroken. Heartbroken for these families who send their children to school hoping they [are] safe,” she said.
Disturbing videos and images from the scene show law enforcement helping students come out of the building and escape the violence.
Several students told the Post-Dispatch they first thought it was a drill, but later heard the principal say the code word for a shooting. Once they realised the magnitude of the threat, students jumped out of windows or cornered inside their classrooms.
“Once you heard the boom,” Michael De Filippo, a teacher at Central VPA told the Post-Dispatch. “All the chuckling and laughing in the back of the room stopped.”
David Williams, a math teacher at the school, also told Post-Dispatch that the principal came over the loudspeaker around 9am.
Mr Williams told the outlet he heard multiple shots outside his classroom, and one of the windows on the classroom door was shot out. He then heard a man say, “You are all going to f***ing die.”
Teens were transported in buses to a safe area in Gateway STEM High School, where they were reunited with their parents.
All the schools in the St Louis public school district have been placed on a “hard lockdown.” School officials said that counselors will be made available for teens in every school.
The FBI and state authorities have joined the investigation.
Missouri Governor Mike Parson said in a statement: “Our hearts go out to the victims and their families of this morning’s shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis.”
“Our office has been briefed on this tragedy. State Public Safety officials are coordinating with local law enforcement and have offered any state resources necessary to assist with the investigation.”
