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At Least 2 Killed in Shooting at St. Louis High School Teen and Woman Killed in Shooting at St. Louis High School
(32 minutes later)
A gunman opened fire at a performing arts high school in St. Louis on Monday just as classes were getting underway, killing two people and injuring at least seven others before he was fatally shot while exchanging gunfire with the police, the authorities said. ST. LOUIS — Messiah Miller Jr. was sitting in algebra class on Monday morning when he heard the first gunshot. Maybe it was just noise from the construction site across the street, he and his classmates reassured themselves.
Lt. Col. Michael Sack, the interim commissioner of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, said an adult woman died at a hospital and a teenage girl was pronounced dead at the scene at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School. Both had been shot, he said. Then they heard an urgent message from the principal over the intercom: “Miles Davis is in the building.”
The others who were hurt “suffered a variety of injuries, from shrapnel injuries to gunshots,” Colonel Sack said. That is the code that informs students and teachers at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School that an “active shooter” had breached the building; it sent students in the algebra class scrambling to hide. Messiah texted five people, including his mother, to tell them that he loved them.
Colonel Sack did not identify the suspect but said he appeared to be about 20 years old. The suspect died at a hospital, Colonel Sack said. “We heard more shots, and they were getting closer and closer,” said Messiah, 16. “Then he jiggled our door. But he didn’t come in.”
“Here is a safe place where kids go to grow, to learn, to develop and something like this happens — it’s just heartbreaking,” Colonel Sack said of the school. At least two people in the school were killed and seven others injured before the gunman was killed in a shootout with the police, the authorities said, as another American school transformed on Monday from a quiet place of learning to a scene of terror, panic and violence. Students cowered under desks or jumped out windows and wondered if they were going to survive.
The police responded just after 9 a.m. to reports that shots had been fired at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, a spokeswoman for the St. Louis Public Schools said. Lt. Col. Michael Sack, the interim commissioner of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, said the victims included an adult woman who died at a hospital after the shooting and a teenage girl who was pronounced dead at the scene. Others who were hurt “suffered a variety of injuries, from shrapnel injuries to gunshots,” Colonel Sack said.
“Police responded quite heavily and quite quickly,” the spokeswoman, Lori Willis, said. Photos published by local news outlets and shared online by people driving by showed dozens of police cars at the busy intersection in south St. Louis where the school sits. He said the suspected gunman appeared to have been about 20 years old, but did not name him. The suspect also died at a hospital, Colonel Sack said.
Ms. Willis noted that the school shares a campus with another high school, the Collegiate School of Medical and Bioscience, and said that both were on lockdown for a period of time. “Here is a safe place where kids go to grow, to learn, to develop, and something like this happens — it’s just heartbreaking,” he said of the school.
Colonel Sack said the school was locked and the doors were secured before the gunman, who was “armed with a long gun,” entered the school. Colonel Sack did not say how the gunman was able to get inside. Once they were evacuated from the building, students were taken to the parking lot of a nearby grocery store to be reunited with their parents.
“The shooter was quickly stopped by police inside” the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, the district said on Twitter. Ms. Willis said the gunman was described as slim and dressed entirely in black. A motive for the shooting and the gunman’s connection to the school were not immediately clear. In the aftermath of the shooting, police officers stood outside the school in south St. Louis, and yellow police tape lined one side of the building. Women sat on a bench, holding hands and praying for the victims.
“Police responded quite heavily and quite quickly” to reports of a shooting just after 9 a.m., said Lori Willis, a spokeswoman for the St. Louis Public Schools. Photos published by local news outlets and shared on social media showed dozens of police cars at the busy intersection outside the school.
The performing arts school shares a campus with another high school, the Collegiate School of Medical and Bioscience, and both were on lockdown Monday morning.
It was not immediately clear how the gunman was able to enter the school. Colonel Sack said the building was locked, with doors secured, before the gunman, who was “armed with a long gun,” arrived.
“The shooter was quickly stopped by police inside,” the district said on Twitter. Ms. Willis said the gunman was described as slim and dressed entirely in black. It was not immediately clear whether the gunman had any connection to the school.
Kelvin Adams, the superintendent of schools for the St. Louis Public School District, credited members of the school’s faculty and staff for rallying the students to evacuate the building quickly.Kelvin Adams, the superintendent of schools for the St. Louis Public School District, credited members of the school’s faculty and staff for rallying the students to evacuate the building quickly.
For hours after the shooting, the district was working to reunite students with their families at another school, Ms. Willis said. Kristie Faulstich was in the middle of teaching a lesson on trade and empires to her sophomore world history class when she heard the “Miles Davis” code for an active shooter over the intercom. She said she quickly locked her classroom door, turned off the lights and instructed her class of about 20 students to move to the corner of the room.
David Williams, a math teacher at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he heard gunshots outside his classroom before a bullet shattered a window in the classroom door. He said he then heard a man say that everyone was going to die. Within a minute of her locking the classroom, Ms. Faulstich heard someone “pulling drastically” at the door and trying to get in. The person couldn’t, and moved on.
Nylah Jones, a ninth grade student at the school, told The Post-Dispatch that she was in a math class when shots were fired into the room from the hallway. She described how students gathered in a corner of the classroom and tried not to move as the gunman banged on the door. Ms. Faulstich, who said she had served in the Army until 2018, said that at one point she had heard about 20 rounds fired. In the moment, Ms. Faulstich said, she was “mentally preparing for how to defend my kids.”
Mayor Tishaura O. Jones of St. Louis responded to the shooting by saying “Help us Jesus” on Twitter. “I wasn’t going to say, ‘Nobody is going to hurt you,’ because that’s a promise I couldn’t make,” she said. “You get into this head space: I will do whatever it takes, and I will protect you however I have to. I know that’s how the teachers were in this moment. Those are our kids.”
At the news conference outside the school, she said, “To be here for a such a devastating and traumatic situation breaks my heart, especially as a mother.” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, condemned the shooting on Monday in a briefing with reporters, calling it “senseless violence,” and repeated President Biden’s call for Congress to pass a ban on assault weapons and other measures meant to restrict access to firearms. “We need additional action to stop the scourge of gun violence,” she said.
Addressing students and faculty members at the news conference, Representative Cori Bush, Democrat of Missouri, said, “Our hearts go out to each and every one of you, but as we are thinking about how to help, we will also be here on the ground to help.” At a news conference outside the school, Mayor Tishaura O. Jones of St. Louis expressed sympathy for the shooting victims and survivors. “To be here for a such a devastating and traumatic situation breaks my heart, especially as a mother,” the mayor said.
State Representative Peter Merideth, whose district includes the school campus, said on Facebook that he was praying for the students and staff members, including his niece, who is a teacher at the school. The Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, with an enrollment of about 380, and the Collegiate School of Medical and Bioscience, which has about 260 students, are magnet high schools. At the performing arts school, which has a predominantly Black student body, students are required to audition before they are accepted to enroll.
The Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, with an enrollment of about 380, and the Collegiate School of Medical and Bioscience, which has about 260 students, are magnet high schools that share a campus at a busy intersection in south St. Louis. The Collegiate School of Medical and Bioscience is ranked fifth in the state by U.S. News & World Report. Michaela Marie Cole graduated from the school in 2017. Now 23, she said she thought the school was going to be like “High School Musical,” and the reality was not far off. “We actually did flash mobs,” she said.
Michaela Marie Cole graduated from the performing arts school in 2017. Ms. Cole, now 23, said it was “a dream school.” She said she thought it was going to be like “High School Musical” and the reality was not far off. “We actually did flash mobs,” she said. But like many high school students in the United States, her education included active-shooter training, including the “Miles Davis” code.
But like many high school students in the United States, her education included active-shooter training. She said the school used a code to alert students to a shooting on campus: Miles Davis.
“We thought we were never going to need this,” she said.“We thought we were never going to need this,” she said.
Jenna Fisher reported from St. Louis, and Julie Bosman from Chicago. Jim Tankersley contributed reporting from Washington. Kirsten Noyes and Kitty Bennett contributed research.