US high school shooting leaves three dead, including suspect

 

A 19-year-old gunman opened fire at a high school in St. Louis, Missouri, on Monday, killing two people and injuring seven others before officers fatally shot the suspect, the city’s police commissioner said. 

No motive for the gun violence was immediately apparent, but Police Commissioner Mike Sack told an early evening news conference the assailant may have suffered from mental illness. Students fleeing from the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School as police arrived on the scene told officers the shooter was armed with a rifle, Sack said. 

Police exchanged gunfire with the suspect after storming the school, and he was shot dead, ending the rampage about 15 minutes after the first calls for help came in at about 9:10 a.m., the commissioner said. The suspect was identified as Orlando Harris, 19, who graduated from high school last year and had no previous criminal history, Sack told reporters. 

A 61-year-old teacher and a 16-year-old girl were killed, Sack said. Sack declined to say how the suspect in Monday’s shooting gained entry to the school, attended by about 380 students, though he said doors to the building had been locked, slowing down his ability to get inside. The high school had seven security officers on site and metal detectors, a school official told the news conference. 

In the Uvalde rampage in May, police and other law enforcement officers were castigated for waiting more than an hour before confronting the shooter, who was locked inside a pair of adjoining classrooms with students and teachers.