Gunman Dead, 5 Injured at Ohio School

[mikepro8]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/200...D8S6J0880.html

Oct 10, 4:01 PM (ET)

By JOE MILICIA

CLEVELAND (AP) - A gunman opened fire in a downtown high school Wednesday before killing himself, and five people were taken to a hospital, authorities said.

After the shooting, shaken teens called their parents on cell phones, most to reassure but in at least one case with terrifying news: "Mom, I got shot."

Mayor Frank Jackson said three teens and two adults were hurt. He said the children were in "stable, good condition," and the adults were in "a little elevated condition."

Police said SuccessTech Academy had been secured and that the lone suspect had fatally shot himself. Students said he was enrolled at the alternative school but did not attend class Wednesday.

Student Doneisha LeVert, who hid in a closet with two other students after she heard a "Code Blue" alert over the loudspeaker, said the shooter had threatened students Friday.

"He's crazy. He threatened to blow up our school. He threatened to stab everybody," she said.

Ronnell Jackson, 15, said he saw a shooter running down a school hallway.

"He was about to shoot me, but I got out just in time," he said. "He was aiming at me I got out just in time."

Tammy Mundy, 38, who has a son and daughter at the school, told The Plain Dealer that her daughter called when the shooting started.

"She said, 'Mom they're shooting in here, kids are running out, I'm hiding in the closet,'" Mundy told the newspaper.

Then she called her 18-year-old son, Darnell Rodgers, on his cell phone, and he told her he had been shot in the arm.

"He said, 'Mom, I got shot,'" Mundy told the newspaper.

The mayor said two boys, ages 14 and 17, were hurt, as were two men, ages 42 and 57, and a 14-year-old girl he said fell and hurt her knee while running out of the school.

The 57-year-old is a teacher and was in good condition, said Eileen Korey, a spokeswoman for Metro Health Medical Center. She said the older teenage student was in stable condition, and that conditions on the other patients were not being released.

Students stood outside the building, many in tears, hugging each other and on cell phones. Others shouted at reporters with TV cameras to leave them alone. Family members also stood outside, anxiously waiting for their children to be released.

"I'm scared. I'm hoping no more people got hurt," Ronnell Jackson said.

The shooting occurred across the street from the FBI office in downtown Cleveland, and students were being sent to the FBI site.

"There are a lot of emergency vehicles," said spokesman Scott Wilson. "They're just trying to sort things out right now."

Wilson said he had no information on the shooting.

SuccessTech Academy is an alternative high school in the Cleveland city school district that emphasizes technology and entrepreneurship. It is is housed on several floors of the district's downtown Cleveland Lakeside Avenue administration building.

"It's a shining beacon for the Cleveland Metropolitan School System," said John Zitzner, founder and president of E City Cleveland, a nonprofit group aimed at teaching business skills to inner-city teens. "It's orderly, it's disciplined, it's calm, it's focused."

The school has about 240 mainly black students with a small number of white and Hispanic students. All the students are considered poor under federal poverty guidelines.

The school, opened five years ago, ranks in the middle of the state's ratings for student performance. Its graduation rate is 94 percent, well above the district's rate of 55 percent.



Happened across the street from the FBI Office... wonder what their response time was. Not that its their job to respond to that, I am sure it is local PD.

If you cant be safe in school across the street from the FBI.... IMO it may be time to let the teachers carry (concealed, maybe).

[KeithPA]

Ohio now has preemption. I'm sure someone will say "well if cleveland still had their AWB......."

[TRB]

The morning interviews reflect the thinking that "this could have been prevented". The kid had been suspended for fighting and had made threats against students and faculty. The media reports that the school had been "crying for more security" for several years.

[rwilson452]

I think the only good thing about this shooting is the perp removed himself from the gene pool

[brewguy]

The morning interviews reflect the thinking that "this could have been prevented". The kid had been suspended for fighting and had made threats against students and faculty. The media reports that the school had been "crying for more security" for several years.

You know this raises the question in my mind of just how you deal with a kid like this? Assuming he really was a ticking bomb and everyone could see it. You can't just lock the kid up forever because you feel he is a threat. So what do you do?

I wonder if either of the adults would have been able to prevent this if they were armed?

[TRB]

The background given on television this morning is that the kid is from a broken home. It is unclear if there were responsible adults in his home life. It there are no parents truly involved then there is no way a school system is going to be able to handle anything in a preemptive manner.

[thespider]

I wonder if either of the adults would have been able to prevent this if they were armed?

YES! They could have, or at least tried to! Nothing is worse than hearing someone was shot in a place where guns are not "allowed".

[brewguy]

The background given on television this morning is that the kid is from a broken home. It is unclear if there were responsible adults in his home life. It there are no parents truly involved then there is no way a school system is going to be able to handle anything in a preemptive manner.

I can't help thinking that if there were responsible parents involved in the kids life this would not have happened.

As much as I think Brownback looks like greg brady, I agree with family being the key to our future. there are too many kids growing up without strong family support. When you are that age you need guidance.

[mikepro8]

I personally HATE the terms they were using on ABC news this morning - "could have been prevented." Gimme a break. My crystal ball is broken, maybe ABC has enough money to get theirs up and running properly. I cant predict what I am going to eat for dinner tonight. Just because the kid was threatening violence, doesnt mean he was going to follow through with it. Besides, as someone mentioned above, what do you do? You cant lock him up forever. They suspended him for fighting... about as much as you can to a person in his situation.

[sgh]

As long as the news media make celebrities out of these people by giving them national coverage this will never stop. Plenty of nut jobs who need recognition figure this is a great way to go out in a "blaze of glory".

Pretty twisted thinking, I know but you can't ignore that these things happen in patterns. I really feel it is more than a coincidence.