Shock in Michigan
Underage school shooter leaves three dead. A city in horror
Oxford High School students mourn their classmates after the shooting
© Jeff Kowalsky / AFP
Gunshots are fired again at a school in the United States. Youngsters die again. The alleged perpetrator is said to have attended the tenth grade there. The sheriff speaks of a cold-blooded act.
No child should fear for their life while attending school – this request from Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer sounds like a matter of course, but it is not in the United States. A 15-year-old opened fire at his high school in Oxford, killing at least three of his classmates, according to police. Seven other students and one teacher were injured.
“It is clear that he came with the intention of killing people. He shot people from close range, often in the head or in the chest,” Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard told the broadcaster on Wednesday CNN. The shooter acted “in cold blood and murderous” on Tuesday, said Bouchard. More than 30 cartridge cases were recovered from the school, so the perpetrator probably fired more than 30 shots. The dead are therefore a 16-year-old, a 14-year-old and a 17-year-old.
Rapid police action saved lives
The exercises at the secondary school for such a case and the rapid intervention of the police would have saved lives on Tuesday, Bouchard emphasized. After the alarm in the school, the shooter tried to gain access to barricaded classrooms and even shot through doors. He is also said to have tried to impersonate a police officer, as shown on CNN video footage of students. According to the police, when he was arrested he still had eight rounds of unused ammunition with him.
The alleged perpetrator is therefore a 15-year-old tenth grader from Oxford High School north of the metropolis of Detroit. He was taken into juvenile custody after his arrest. The police had confiscated a handgun belonging to the alleged perpetrator’s father. It is still unclear how he got hold of the weapon he had just acquired a few days ago.
During a search of the parents’ house, documents were found that, according to first impressions, allowed insight into the thoughts of the boy before the crime, Bouchard told CNN.
Sheriff: “This wound will never go away”
According to police reports on Tuesday evening, three of the injured were in critical condition, and another was seriously injured. Three students are in stable condition. The teacher, who was apparently struck by a graze, had already left the hospital. Other students suffered minor injuries when the school was evacuated. “This touches all of us personally and deeply, and has been for a long time. This wound will never go away,” said the sheriff.
A police spokesman had previously announced that the alleged perpetrator refused to testify, so his motive was unclear. His parents hired a lawyer. The suspect was caught within minutes of the first emergency call, which was received at 12:51 p.m. (local time / 6:51 p.m. CET).
When the 15-year-old later saw the emergency services in a hallway, he raised his hands, said Sheriff Bouchard. The officers then took away his weapon and arrested him. The high school is attended by around 1,800 students. There are no metal detectors there. It is expected that the investigation could take longer as officers would have to view a lot of video footage and interview hundreds of people, Bouchard said. According to media reports, the responsible public prosecutor said that her office would quickly bring charges.
Biden offers condolences to loved ones
Fatal incidents continue to occur in the United States because shooters open fire in schools. That is why many schools have such crisis scenarios practiced on a regular basis to ensure that students are prepared in the event of an emergency. Gun law in the United States differs from state to state, but firearms such as pistols and assault rifles are usually relatively easy to come by. Stricter gun laws usually fail because of the Republicans in Congress and the powerful gun lobby. US President Joe Biden has announced measures to curb armed violence, but so far without concrete results.
Biden expressed his condolences to the families of the victims at Oxford High School. “My thoughts go with the families who have endured the unimaginable pain of losing a loved one,” he said during a visit to Minnesota. Michigan’s Governor Whitmer called the act “terrible” on Twitter on Tuesday and ordered all flags in the state to be lowered to half-mast. She shared, “We have a responsibility to do everything we can to protect one another and we have the means to reduce gun violence. Nobody should be afraid to be in school, work, or even a place of worship own house to go. “