School shootingTeacher talks a California high-school shooter into putting down his gun
A 16-year old Taft, California high school student brought a shot gun to school yesterday, carrying enough ammunition with him to kill many people; after shooting and injuring one student in a science class, he shot the teacher, but the bullet only grazed the teacher’s head; the teacher and another staff member then engaged the gunman in conversation, allowing teachers in other classrooms time to lead their students out of the building; the two men persuaded the gunman to put his gun down, and he was arrested by the police
A teacher and a school supervisor in a Taft, California, high school managed to talk an armed student, who came to the school aiming to kill, into putting down his weapons after he had already shot and injured ne student, thus averting what could have been a mass killing.
The police said the gunman had enough ammunition with him to kill many people.
The student arrived at the high school at 09:00, carrying a shotgun with him. Students and staff members immediately called the police, but while the police was on its way, the armed student burst into a science class and shot two people, injuring one student. The second bullet grazed the teacher’s head.
The teacher was joined by a staff member who entered the class, and both men calmed the student down and told him that there should be no more shooting in the class. While the two engaged the student in conversation, other teachers quickly evacuated all the students from the school building.
The gunman listened, and then put down his weapon just as police officers arrives and arrested him.
“They talked him into putting that shotgun down. He in fact told the teacher, `I don’t want to shoot you,’ and named the person that he wanted to shoot,” Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said.
“The heroics of these two people goes without saying. They could have just as easily… tried to get out of the classroom and left students, and they didn’t,” he added. ”
The student was suspended last year.
Taft, a community of about 7,000 people, is located 120 miles north of Los Angeles.
Taft Union High School will be closed for classes on Friday, but counselors will be available on campus to talk to worried students.
