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| This undated photo provided by Chandra Landsberry shows Sharon and Michael Landsberry. Police said Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, the student who wounded two classmates and killed Michael Landsberry and then himself on a Nevada middle school campus in Sparks, Nev., was 12 years old. Police also lauded the actions of Landsberry, a 45-year-old math teacher and former Marine, who they say tried to stop the rampage before he was fatally shot in the chest. |
SPARKS, Nev.
(AP) -- Students cowered in fear and pleaded for their lives as a
12-year-old Nevada boy went on a schoolyard rampage with a handgun he
brought from home, waving the weapon at frightened classmates and
shooting a math teacher in the chest on a basketball court.
The
boy opened fire Monday morning on the Sparks Middle School campus,
wounding two boys and killing the teacher before he turned the gun on
himself.
Washoe County School District police
revealed Tuesday that the seventh-grader brought the 9 mm semi-automatic
Ruger handgun from his home, but authorities were still working to
determine how he obtained it. The student's parents were cooperating
with authorities and could face charges in the case, police said.
Eighth-grader
Angelo Ferro recalled burying his face in his hands as the boy waved
the gun and threatened to shoot. Another seventh-grader and Ferro's math
teacher, Michael Landsberry, lay gunned down nearby.
"The
whole time I was hoping Mr. L was OK, we'd all get through it, it was a
bad dream," Ferro told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Ferro, 13, was in the schoolyard with friends when the violence erupted.
He
heard a pop about 15 minutes before the morning bell rang but didn't
think much of it. He then saw an injured boy clutching his wounded arm,
and he watched Landsberry walk toward the gunman and take a bullet to
the chest.
Unable to get inside the
locked-down school, Ferro and others crouched against the building for
safety but soon came face-to-face with the armed student.
Ferro
didn't know the boy but said he and other frightened classmates begged
for their lives and tried to talk him out of firing. Something
distracted the student, and he didn't shoot. "He left, thank God," Ferro
said.
A series of 911 calls made from the
school also reflected the terror of the situation, including an ominous
report of "teacher down."
"Can you send please send police out here," a panicked student told a 911 dispatcher. "There's a kid with a gun."
Authorities
say they're withholding the shooter's name out of respect for his
family. They provided no motive for the shooting but said they've
interviewed 20 or 30 witnesses and are looking into any prior
connections between the victims and the shooter.
"Everybody
wants to know why - that's the big question. The answer is, we don't
know right now," Sparks Deputy Police Chief Tom Miller said. Sparks is
just east of Reno and has a population of roughly 90,000.
Under
Nevada law, it is illegal to allow anyone under 18 to handle a gun
without supervision. The offense rises to a felony if there was
substantial risk the child would use the firearm to commit a violent
act. However, the law doesn't apply if the gun was stored securely or if
the child obtained the weapon unlawfully.
At a
news conference Tuesday, law enforcement and school officials again
lauded the actions of Landsberry, a 45-year-old former Marine who tried
to stop the rampage before he was killed.
"I
cannot express enough appreciation for Mr. Landsberry," Washoe County
School District Superintendent Pedro Martinez said. "He truly is a
hero."
Students said they saw Landsberry walk
calmly toward the shooter and ask him to hand over his weapon before he
was gunned down. Washoe County School District Police Chief Mike Mieras
said Landsberry's actions gave some students enough time to run to
safety.
After killing Landsberry, the boy fired at a second student, hitting him in the abdomen. He then shot himself in the head.
The two 12-year-old boys who were wounded are in stable condition and recovering.
Students
from the middle school and neighboring elementary school were evacuated
to a high school after the shooting, and all classes were canceled. The
middle school will remain closed for the week, while an adjacent
elementary school is set to reopen Wednesday.
Landsberry
coached several youth sports. He also served two tours in Afghanistan
with the Nevada National Guard. Landsberry served in the Marine Corps
from 1986 to 1990 and was stationed in Camp Lejeune, N.C., and Okinawa,
Japan, according to military records.
Senior
Master Sgt. Robert Garrett attended middle school with Landsberry in
Reno before serving as his supervisor in recent years at the Nevada Air
National Guard.
"Every one of the people I
have talked to just knew that Mike was in there," Garrett said. "He was
the guy that would have jumped in there to stop the bullets from hitting
other kids. And sure enough, it was."
