Three people in Missouri are dead, including the gunman, after a shooting at a St. Louis high school Monday morning sent multiple people to hospitals, police said.
Chaos unfolded shortly after 9 a.m. when authorities learned of a shooter with a long gun inside Central Visual and Performing Arts High School. The school and the Collegiate School of Medicine & Bioscience, which is in the same building, were placed on lockdown.
Students were evacuated, and parents were directed to Gateway STEM High School to reunite with their children.
The shooter, who appears to be about 20 years old, was taken into custody inside the performing arts school, according to a tweet from St. Louis Public Schools. He was pronounced dead a short time later, after exchanging gunfire with police, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said during an afternoon news conference.
“While on paper we might have 9 victims, 8 who were transported and one remained, we have hundreds of others,” Chief Mike Sack said at the news conference. “Everyone who survived here is going to take home trauma.”
The names of the gunman and the two victims were not released. One of the victims is a woman and the other is a teenage girl. Both were killed as a result of gunshot wounds.
Authorities have not disclosed the shooter’s connection to the school or a motive for the gunfire.
Sack said that doors at the school were locked, which caused pause for the gunman. He did not clarify how the gunman was able to get into the school.
There were seven active security guards in the school building at the time of the shooting, according to school officials.
Police asked the public to stay away from the area during the investigation.
The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are on the scene.
“At this time, the scene is secure and there is no active threat,” police said in a tweet.
St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones called the shooting “a devastating and traumatic situation.”
“I’m heartbroken for these families who send their children to our schools hoping that they will be safe,” she said at the news conference. “Our children shouldn’t have to experience this, they shouldn’t have to go through active shooter drills in case something happens. And unfortunately that happened today.”
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