At least three people, including the suspect, have been killed during a shooting that took place at a high school in St. Louis, Missouri. While the male perpetrator’s identity has not been released yet, the information that has been made public is extremely disturbing.
According to math teacher David Williams, the horrific event started with the principal giving an “active shooter” code word over the loudspeaker. The assailant then began firing and blowing out windows as he screamed through the hallways, “You are all going to f*cking die.”
Ninth-grader Nylah Jones told authorities that no one thought the lockdown was for a real shooting at first. “Next thing you know, we just heard gunshots,” she said. “First single shots rang out, then multiple, then single again.”
The young girl was in math class when the shooter began firing into the classroom from the hallway. Students clustered into one corner as the suspect banged on the door.
16-year-old Taniya Gholston managed to escape a room the shooter had entered, due to his weapon jamming. “All I heard was two shots and he came in there with a gun,” they explained.
“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.”
The shooter’s gun jammed and 16-year-old Taniya Gholston made it out from Central Visual Performing Arts school. @stltoday pic.twitter.com/UgYW4S3LFc
— Kim Bell (@kbellpd) October 24, 2022
Dakota Willard, 14, said he saw a girl lying on the floor. “What I saw was traumatizing,” the young teen told police. “I’m OK, I don’t need any special help.”
Michaela Cole graduated from the performing arts school in 2017 and described it as a “dream school.” That said, the curriculum included school shooter education and various drills that prepared the school’s alum and current students for horrific events such as these.
“We thought we were never going to need this,” she said.
RIP.
