Ohio school gunman kills self, wounds 4

[Ban Hammer 13,340]

CLEVELAND - A 14-year-old suspended student opened fire in his downtown high school Wednesday, wounding four people as terrified schoolmates hid in closets and bathrooms and huddled under laboratory desks. He then killed himself.

A fellow student at SuccessTech Academy alternative school said Asa H. #######, who was suspended for fighting two days earlier, had made threats in front of students and teachers last week.

"He's crazy. He threatened to blow up our school. He threatened to stab everybody," Doneisha LeVert said. "We didn't think nothing of it."

Armed with two revolvers, ####### fired eight shots and may have targeted teachers, said Police Chief Michael McGrath. Police found a duffel bag stocked with ammunition and three knives in a bathroom but found no suicide note, he said.

Parents were angry that firearms got into a school equipped with metal detectors that students said were intermittently used.

####### had a history of mental health problems and threatened to commit suicide last year while in a mental health center, according to juvenile court records obtained by The Plain Dealer.

He spent time in two juvenile facilities after a domestic violence episode and was also given home detention, and he was suspended from school last year for trying to injure a student, the paper reported.

Officials said two teachers and two students were shot, and that a 14-year-old girl fell and hurt her knee while running out of the school.

Witnesses said the shooter moved through the converted five-story downtown office building, working his way up through the first two floors of administrative offices to the third floor of classrooms. Officials said he was wearing a Marilyn Manson concert shirt, black jeans and black-painted finger nails.

The first person shot, student Michael Peek, had punched ####### in the face right before the shootings began, said student Rasheem Smith, 15.

####### "came out of the bathroom and bumped Mike and he (Mike) punched him in his face. Mike started walking. He shot Mike in the side." Peek, 14, didn't know ####### had a gun, Smith said.

Antonio Deberry, 17, said he and his classmates hid under laboratory tables and watched the shooter move down the hallway. "I saw him walking past. He didn't see us, we saw him." The shooter swore and shot several times, Deberry said.

LeVert said she hid in a closet with two other students after she heard a "Code Blue" alert over the loudspeaker. She said she heard about 10 shots.

Darnell Rodgers, 18, was walking up to another floor when the stairway suddenly became flooded with students.

"It took me a couple of minutes to realize that I was actually shot, when I felt my arm burning in the area, that's when I realized that I had got shot," Rodgers said.

"They were screaming, and they were saying, 'Oh my God, oh my God.' I knew something was wrong, but thought that it was probably just a fight, so I just kept going," Rodgers said.

Rodgers was released from a hospital after treatment for a graze wound to his right elbow.

####### had been suspended since Monday for fighting near the school that day, said Charles Blackwell, president of SuccessTech's student-parent organization. He did not know how ####### got into the building Wednesday.

Blackwell said that there was a security guard on the first floor, but that the position of another guard on the third floor had been eliminated.

Student Frances Henderson, 14, said she often got into arguments with #######, who once told her, "I got something for you all." He would often wear a trench coat, black boots and a dog collar, she said.

Students stood outside the building, many in tears, hugging one another and on cell phones. Others shouted at reporters with TV cameras to leave them alone. Family members also stood outside, waiting for their children to be released.

Math teacher David Kachadourian, 57, was in good condition; Michael Grassie, a 42-year-old teacher, was in surgery, but his condition was unavailable. The other two injured teens were taken to a children's hospital, which would not release their names, ages or conditions.

People at #######'s home declined to comment Wednesday evening.

Deberry's mother, Lakisha Deberry, said she was upset that metal detectors at the school were not always in use.

"You never know what's going on in someone's mind," said Deberry, adding that she was required to go through a metal detector and present an identification card whenever she wanted to drop off something at school for her children.

The shooting occurred across the street from the FBI office in downtown Cleveland, and students were being sent to the FBI site.

Classes at all schools in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District will be canceled Thursday, said Eugene Sanders, chief executive officer of the district. Counseling will be available Thursday for students at recreation centers throughout the city, Sanders said.

SuccessTech Academy is an alternative high school in the public school district that stresses technology and entrepreneurship. It is housed on several floors of the district's downtown Cleveland Lakeside Avenue administration building.

"It's a shining beacon for the Cleveland Metropolitan School system," said John Zitzner, founder and president of E City Cleveland, a nonprofit group aimed at teaching business skills to inner-city teens. "It's orderly, it's disciplined, it's calm, it's focused."

The school has about 240 students, most of them black, with a small number of white and Hispanic students.

####### was white, and Henderson, the student who said she frequently argued with him, is black, but she said she didn't believe race played a role in the shootings.

The school, opened five years ago, ranks in the middle of the state's ratings for student performance. Its graduation rate is 94 percent, well above the district's rate of 55 percent.

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sounds like lawsuit city.

[Nagishkaw 510]

Good Lord !

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Another one for the tally - along with Virginia Tech and the Sheriff's Deputy from the other week.

[Ban Hammer 13,340]

Another one for the tally - along with Virginia Tech and the Sheriff's Deputy from the other week.

i'd like to know what a 14 year old is doing with a pair of pistols.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Another one for the tally - along with Virginia Tech and the Sheriff's Deputy from the other week.

i'd like to know what a 14 year old is doing with a pair of pistols.

Sure. Sounds like the owner wasn't particularly responsible.

[LuzyC 0]

Oh my God!

I just don't understand how kids have the access to get a gun? and why the school security didn't know that? ..it scared me a lot...

[JODO 2]

sick

[Welshcookie 17]

Seriously.

How many more children are going to die before the U.S wake up to the fact that gun laws need to be reviewed? Tell me as much as you like that everyone has the right to bear arms, that guns don't kill people people kill people etc etc. But something is terribly wrong when every few months we are waking up to another school shooting tragedy. Something is terribly wrong when schools need to have metal detectors and armed guards.

I know it is a contentious issue...it certainly is in our household...but every time another shooting happens it just strengthens my point, my very conservative hubby puts my views down to my bleeding heart liberalism....but when are people going to get tired of seeing bleeding children?

Schools should be a safe place of growth and education. Another sad day.

[Mags 112]

Seriously.

How many more children are going to die before the U.S wake up to the fact that gun laws need to be reviewed? Tell me as much as you like that everyone has the right to bear arms, that guns don't kill people people kill people etc etc. But something is terribly wrong when every few months we are waking up to another school shooting tragedy. Something is terribly wrong when schools need to have metal detectors and armed guards.

I know it is a contentious issue...it certainly is in our household...but every time another shooting happens it just strengthens my point, my very conservative hubby puts my views down to my bleeding heart liberalism....but when are people going to get tired of seeing bleeding children?

Schools should be a safe place of growth and education. Another sad day.

I completely agree.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Another one for the tally - along with Virginia Tech and the Sheriff's Deputy from the other week.

It's an epidemic!!!! Just like illegal immigration... oh wait. Illegal immigration is an isolated incident. Right?

Illegal aliens murder12 Americans daily

[Ban Hammer 13,340]

Seriously.

How many more children are going to die before the U.S wake up to the fact that gun laws need to be reviewed? Tell me as much as you like that everyone has the right to bear arms, that guns don't kill people people kill people etc etc. But something is terribly wrong when every few months we are waking up to another school shooting tragedy. Something is terribly wrong when schools need to have metal detectors and armed guards.

I know it is a contentious issue...it certainly is in our household...but every time another shooting happens it just strengthens my point, my very conservative hubby puts my views down to my bleeding heart liberalism....but when are people going to get tired of seeing bleeding children?

Schools should be a safe place of growth and education. Another sad day.

you're absolutely right. we need to abolish schools

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Another one for the tally - along with Virginia Tech and the Sheriff's Deputy from the other week.

It's an epidemic!!!! Just like illegal immigration... oh wait. Illegal immigration is an isolated incident. Right?

Illegal aliens murder12 Americans daily

Left-field on that one mate - I've never said implicitly or otherwise that illegal immigration is an 'isolated incident'.

But these kinds of mass rampages seem to happen with disturbing frequency here - and noone seems to have an answer; because that might mean questioning that sacred cow of the second amendment.

[natty bumppo 297]

Another one for the tally - along with Virginia Tech and the Sheriff's Deputy from the other week.

It's an epidemic!!!! Just like illegal immigration... oh wait. Illegal immigration is an isolated incident. Right?

Illegal aliens murder12 Americans daily

Left-field on that one mate - I've never said implicitly or otherwise that illegal immigration is an 'isolated incident'.

But these kinds of mass rampages seem to happen with disturbing frequency here - and noone seems to have an answer; because that might mean questioning that sacred cow of the second amendment.

Just a few random thoughts ....

Think maybe the sacred cow of "responsibility" needs to be addressed.

Seems something more basic has changed within society over the past 30 years and the 2nd is still the same as then.

Lets see ... disturbed kid ... acts out the "I want attention" game ... doesn't get it ... then decides .. it's blaze of glory time … complete with worldwide media coverage (the person will be remembered for years (meaning, the person will be somebody))

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Another one for the tally - along with Virginia Tech and the Sheriff's Deputy from the other week.

It's an epidemic!!!! Just like illegal immigration... oh wait. Illegal immigration is an isolated incident. Right?

Illegal aliens murder12 Americans daily

Left-field on that one mate - I've never said implicitly or otherwise that illegal immigration is an 'isolated incident'.

But these kinds of mass rampages seem to happen with disturbing frequency here - and noone seems to have an answer; because that might mean questioning that sacred cow of the second amendment.

Just a few random thoughts ....

Think maybe the sacred cow of "responsibility" needs to be addressed.

Seems something more basic has changed within society over the past 30 years and the 2nd is still the same as then.

Lets see ... disturbed kid ... acts out the "I want attention" game ... doesn't get it ... then decides .. it's blaze of glory time … complete with worldwide media coverage (the person will be remembered for years (meaning, the person will be somebody))

Sure - but it seems to happen here more than anywhere else. I'm sure there's more to that than gun ownership. But still - begs the question surely?

[Ban Hammer 13,340]

Another one for the tally - along with Virginia Tech and the Sheriff's Deputy from the other week.

It's an epidemic!!!! Just like illegal immigration... oh wait. Illegal immigration is an isolated incident. Right?

Illegal aliens murder12 Americans daily

Left-field on that one mate - I've never said implicitly or otherwise that illegal immigration is an 'isolated incident'.

But these kinds of mass rampages seem to happen with disturbing frequency here - and noone seems to have an answer; because that might mean questioning that sacred cow of the second amendment.

Just a few random thoughts ....

Think maybe the sacred cow of "responsibility" needs to be addressed.

Seems something more basic has changed within society over the past 30 years and the 2nd is still the same as then.

Lets see ... disturbed kid ... acts out the "I want attention" game ... doesn't get it ... then decides .. it's blaze of glory time … complete with worldwide media coverage (the person will be remembered for years (meaning, the person will be somebody))

Sure - but it seems to happen here more than anywhere else. I'm sure there's more to that than gun ownership. But still - begs the question surely?

to me, one question that really begs answering is why, when all the signs were there, his past history, and given the statements he made, was nothing done to intercede and nip this in the bud? when will people, both in authority and the common person, realize that "just talk" should be taken seriously and reported?