Gunshots in Kentucky school kill 2 teens, hurt 12

Kentucky State Police Lt. Michael Webb speaks to reporters Tuesday about a fatal school shooting in Benton, Ky.
Kentucky State Police Lt. Michael Webb speaks to reporters Tuesday about a fatal school shooting in Benton, Ky.

BENTON, Ky. -- A 15-year-old student killed two classmates and hit a dozen others with gunfire Tuesday, methodically firing a handgun inside a crowded atrium at his rural Kentucky high school.

"He was determined. He knew what he was doing," said Alexandria Caporali, who grabbed her stunned friend and ran into a classroom as their classmates hit the floor.

"It was one right after another -- bang, bang, bang, bang, bang," she added. "You could see his arm jerking as he was pulling the trigger."

He kept firing, she said, until he ran out of ammunition and took off running, trying to get away. Police arrested a suspect moments later, leading him away in handcuffs to be charged with murder and attempted murder. Authorities did not identify him, nor did they release any details about a motive.

Kentucky State Police Lt. Michael Webb said detectives are looking into the suspect's home life and background.

"He was apprehended by the sheriff's department here on-site, at the school, thankfully before any more lives could be taken," Webb said. Police found the weapon, a pistol, in the back side of the high school, a sheriff's deputy told dispatch officers.

The FBI is working with federal, state and local law enforcement partners investigating the shooting, it said on Twitter. At 10:30 a.m., the FBI said its agents and personnel were at the high school assisting.

Seventeen students were injured, 12 of them hit with bullets and five others hurt in the scramble as hundreds of students fled for their lives from Marshall County High School. Many jumped into cars or ran across fields and down the highway, some not stopping until they reached a McDonald's restaurant more than a mile away. Parents left their cars on both sides of an adjacent road, desperately trying to find their teenagers.

"No one screamed. It was almost completely silent as people just ran," said Caporali, 16. She said most students knew what to do because they are drilled throughout the year on how to respond to an active shooter at school.

The two fatalities were 15 years old: A girl died at the scene, and a boy died later at a hospital, Gov. Matt Bevin said, adding that all of the victims are believed to be students. Five young men, including three with gunshot wounds in their heads and one shot in the chest, were flown about 120 miles to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn.

Tuesday's shooting, moments before classes would have begun, disrupted some happy moments in the noisy "commons" area at the center of the school, where several hallways meet and students gather between classes.

Lexie Waymon, 16, said she and a friend were talking about the next basketball game, makeup and eyelashes when gunshots pierced the air.

"I blacked out. I couldn't move. I got up and I tried to run, but I fell. I heard someone hit the ground. It was so close to me," Waymon said. "I just heard it and then I just, everything was black for a good minute. Like, I could not see anything. I just froze and did not know what to do. Then I got up and I ran."

Her friend, Baleigh Culp, said in a text message that they were joking and laughing until they heard a loud bang that sounded like someone's books hitting the floor.

"That's what i expected it to be, until i saw a body drop on the ground," Culp wrote. "There was bullets flying everywhere. I ran straight out the door and headed to the highway as fast as i could."

Waymon did not stop running either, not even when she called her mother to tell her what happened. She made it to the McDonald's, her chest hurting, struggling to breathe. "All I could keep thinking was, 'I can't believe this is happening. I cannot believe this is happening,'" she said.

It was chaotic outside the school as parents and students rushed around trying to find one another, said Dusty Kornbacher, who owns a nearby floral shop. "All the parking lots were full with parents and kids hugging each other and crying and nobody really knowing what was going on," she said.

The school was locked down, and no one was allowed inside either entrance, according to the Marshall County Tribune-Courier. Students from the high school were being bused to nearby North Marshall Middle School, where parents were being allowed to pick up their kids, the Tribune-Courier said.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said he was closely tracking the reports of the "tragedy in Benton, #Kentucky and Marshall County High School."

"My thoughts are with the students, teachers, faculty, and the entire community," he said on Twitter. "Thank you to the first responders who continue to put themselves in harm's way to protect others."

Information for this article was contributed by Kristin M. Hall, Dylan Lovan, Stephen Lance Dennee, Adam Beam, Bruce Schreiner, Rebecca Yonker, Jonathan Mattise, Michael Warren and Lisa Marie Pane of The Associated Press; and by Mike Stunson and Valarie Honeycutt Spears of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

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AP/The Paducah Sun/RYAN HERMENS

Emergency crews respond to a school shooting Tuesday in Benton, Ky., where a 15-year-old student killed two classmates and wounded a dozen others, police said. The teen kept firing his handgun methodically until he ran out of ammunition, one student said. He was arrested moments later.

A Section on 01/24/2018

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