‘F***ing die’: Horror school mass shooting

The male suspect shouted, “You’re all going to f–king die!” as he opened fire on campus, authorities and witnesses said.The shooter, whose identity was not released but is believed to have been in his 20s, died after exchanging gunfire with authorities inside the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, part of the St. Louis Public Schools, officials said at a Monday afternoon news conference, the New York Post reports. A teenage girl was pronounced dead at the scene and an adult woman died at the hospital, police said. Seven other people were being treated for gunshot and shrapnel wounds at a local hospital, according to officials. Neither the identities of the victims had been released, and cops were working to determine if there was a relationship between the gunman and his victims.“This is a heartbreaking day for all of us. It’s gonna be tough. While on paper we may have nine victims, eight that were transported, one that remains, we have hundreds of others,” St. Louis Police Commissioner Mike Sack told reporters.“Everyone who survived this is going to take on trauma. Even the officers who responded here and the firefighters, the paramedics who worked on people here, are going to experience some degree of trauma,” Sack said.“It’s terrible to think about. Here is the same place where kids go to learn, to grow, to develop, and something like this happens. It’s just heartbreaking.”The suspect was able to get through the school’s locked doors, entered the building with a long gun at around 9.10am and began shooting in a third-story classroom, according to Sack, who acknowledged the gunman’s struggle with the locked doors “bought us time.”He said security officials were able to quickly alert cops who arrived within minutes. The officers entered the school with “no hesitation” and engaged the suspect with gunfire.St. Louis police’s quick response was in stark contrast to the 77-minute delay of police officers who responded to the Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooting that killed 19 in May.Math teacher David Williams told the St. Louis Post Dispatch that the principal came over the loudspeaker and said the code word that indicates a shooter is in the building.Williams heard gunfire outside his classroom, where one of the windows on the door was shot out. He told CNN that he heard a man saying, “You are all going to f**king die.”Ninth-grader Nylah Jones told the newspaper that she was in math class when the gunman fired into the room from the hallway. Students gathered in one corner of the classroom and tried not to move as the shooter banged on the door, she said.When they went into lockdown, the children didn’t think it was for a real shooting, she said.Senior Taniya Lumpkin was in speech and debate class when a staffer told them to lock the door, but they “didn’t know if it was real or not.”“Next thing you know, we just heard gunshots,” Nylah said. “First single shots rang out, then multiple, then single again.”Teacher Michael De Filippo told the paper: “Once you heard the boom, all the chuckling and laughing in the back of the room stopped.”Taniya Gholston, 16, said the assailant’s gun eventually jammed and that she heard him say something about being “tired of this damn school,” the Post Dispatch reported.Ja’miah Hampton, also 16, was in vocal class on the fourth floor when she heard gunshots on the third floor.“I heard one big one, and then there were so many I stopped counting,” she told the paper. “I’m confused — why people are so cruel?”Dakota Willard, 14, who attends the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience in the same building, said he saw a girl lying on the floor.“What I saw was traumatising,” Willard said, adding, “I’m OK. I don’t need any special help.”Parents were notified to go to Gateway STEM at 5191 McRee Ave. to reunite with their kids.A boy was seen consoling his mother later.“I’m glad it’s over. My friends are alive. It’s OK, Mum, it’s OK, I’m here,” he said.This story was published by the New York Post and reproduced with permission. Via news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site https://www.news.com.au