KENTUCKY SCHOOL SHOOTING: TWO STUDENT DEAD AND 18 INJURED

January 24, 2018 0
Two people have been killed and 18 injured in a high school shooting in the US state of Kentucky.

A 15-year-old student opened fire at his Kentucky high school with a handgun right before classes started Tuesday morning, killing two classmates and wounding 14 others before being caught, officials said.

The unidentified shooter was taken into custody at the school without incident, officials said.

 A 15-year-old girl died at the scene at Marshall County High School in the town of Benton and a 15-year-old boy died in hospital, said Kentucky's governor.

The attacker, a 15-year-old male student, was arrested in "a non-violent apprehension", officials said.

State police said the unidentified boy was held about 15 minutes after opening fire at 08:00 local time on Tuesday.

The lone attacker opened fire with a handgun apparently at random in a common area before classes started, according to local media.

He will be charged with murder and attempted murder, said officials. The FBI was assisting in the investigation.

Police named the two students who died as Bailey Holt, pronounced dead at the school, and Preston Cope, who succumbed to his injuries in hospital.

Fourteen students were hit by gunfire, including the two who died.

Daniel Austin, a 17-year-old special needs student, was hospitalized. His parents called his cell phone incessantly until someone in the emergency room picked up and said Daniel had been shot.

His mother Andrea rushed to the hospital, bewildered as to why this happened.

"Teachers love him. Students love him. I don't think anything can say one bad thing about him," Andrea Austin said. "And that's not because I'm his mom. Everybody loves him."

Austin said her son was shot in the right arm, which might need to be amputated. She lauded the heroics of a fellow student and a teacher, who quickly scooped up Daniel after the gunfire stopped, rushed him to a car and drove him to a hospital.

Another five students suffered non-gunshot injuries while trying to escape the gunfire.

Jason Hall, a student at the school of nearly 1,150, described the stampede for the exits.

"I saw people getting shoved down," he said. "There was a lot of blood everywhere. It was horrible."

The attack shocked the small farming town of 4,500 people, situated about 130 miles (210km) north-west of Nashville, Tennessee.

"To walk in, the backpacks laying around, the phones laying around, going off, it's indescribable," Marshall County Attorney Jeffery Edwards told reports the Louisville Courier-Journal.

"I've been doing this for 25 years. It's not like anything I've experienced in my life."

Governor Matt Bevin called the attack a "tremendous tragedy" in a statement posted on Twitter.

"It is unbelievable that this would happen in a small, close-knit community like Marshall County," he said.


"As there is still much unknown, I encourage people to love on each other at this time.


"Do not speculate but come alongside each other in support and allow the facts to come out."
 In Washington, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell took to the Senate floor to send "prayers of comfort" to the community.

Several nearby churches and schools were holding vigils for the victims.

Wednesday's classes at the school have been cancelled.

 It is at least the second gun attack in an American high school in as many days.

A 15-year-old girl was shot by a 16-year-old classmate in the cafeteria on Monday in the small Texas town of Italy.

The girl is recovering in hospital; her attacker fled but was later arrested.

Marshall County Schools Superintendent Trent Lovett asked the community to "wrap your arms around these families and around these students, as you always have."

"Together with the community, we will begin the long healing process within our schools. God be with us all," Lovett said.




GIFFORDS: 'DEVASTATING NEWS'
Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who survived a gunshot wound during a January 2011 assassination attempt in Tucson, Arizona, said the Kentucky shooting again demonstrates the need for stronger gun laws.

"The devastating news about the shooting in Kentucky this morning is the latest example, but just yesterday, while the nation's attention was focused on the government shutdown, school shootings were also reported in Texas and Louisiana," Giffords said in a statement.

"Our nation has experienced 13 mass shootings already this year, and it's only January. We will never accept these horrific acts of violence as routine."
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