() — The gunman who killed two people and wounded several others in a school shooting in St. Louis, Missouri, on Monday was flagged during an FBI background check but was still able to purchase the AR-15-style rifle he used in the attack on a private vendor, police said.
When 19-year-old Orlando Harris first tried to buy a gun from a licensed dealer, a background check blocked the sale, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Sgt. Charles Wall. But Harris was still able to legally purchase the rifle from a private individual who had purchased the firearm from a licensed dealer in 2020, Wall said.
This image provided by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department shows an AR-15-style rifle they say was used by the 19-year-old shooter.
Harris’s family had been concerned about his mental health, so when his mother found the rifle in their home, the family contacted police, authorities said.
Missouri does not have a so-called “red flag law” that would allow police to confiscate a person’s gun if they are at risk of harm to themselves or others. So, St. Louis police arranged for Harris’s rifle to be turned over to “a third party known to the family” so it could be stored outside the home, police said in a statement to affiliate KMOV.
Yet somehow, when the teen forced his way into Central High School for the Visual and Performing Arts on Monday morning, he had the rifle back in his hands.
Armed with a high-powered firearm and an arsenal of more than 600 rounds of ammunition and more than a dozen high-capacity magazines, the attacker opened fire in the corridors of the school, from which he had just graduated last year. .
As students and teachers scrambled to shut and barricade doors and take cover, he continued his attack, fatally shooting talented student Alexandria Bell, 15, and beloved teacher Jean Kuczka, 61, and wounding many more. .
Within minutes, officers arrived at the school and quickly engaged the shooter in a shootout, according to St. Louis Police Commissioner Michael Sack. Harris was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Police are working to determine how the attacker regained possession of the rifle, Sack said Wednesday.
School authorities gained access to the bullet-riddled building Tuesday, but it could be weeks or months before students return to Central Visual and Performing Arts and Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience high schools, which share a campus, he said Tuesday. St. Louis Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Kelvin Adams.
“Obviously with the kinds of things that have happened in our building, we need to make sure that the building is ready to welcome the students, the staff and the community as well,” Adams said. She noted that counseling services are available to students and staff.
Students mourn near the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, where two people were killed. Credit: David Carson/AP
A frightening and familiar scene
The St. Louis High School attack is at least the 67th shooting to occur on an American school grounds this year, representing another devastating moment in the growing reality of gun violence against students and educators.
Witnesses to the shooting describe a horrific scene in which the school learned there was an active shooter in the building through a coded message announced over the intercom.
As soon as history teacher Kristie Faulstich heard the announcement, she knew what to do.
“Immediately but calmly I went to close the door and turn off the lights. Then I turned to my kids and told everyone to get in the corner,” she said.
Teachers and law enforcement applauded how the students behaved during the attack.
“We’ve had teenagers and athletes, they don’t always listen, but on Monday they did,” Sack said Wednesday. “They did what their teachers told them to do, they did what the officers told them to do, even though you can see that many of them were traumatized. You can see their faces, you can read it in their eyes.”
“I absolutely commend my students for their response,” Faulstich said. “Even in the moments when they heard gunshots everywhere, they kept quiet and I know they did it to keep themselves safe.”
Several students escaped the building by jumping out of windows, students and teachers said.
There were seven security personnel at the school when the gunman arrived, but he did not enter the building through a checkpoint where security guards were stationed and instead had to force his way inside, according to DeAndre Davis, director of security and protection of San Luis Public Schools.
Police officers arrived at the school within four minutes of the active attacker being reported, according to Sack, who has repeatedly credited quick police response, locked doors and training for preventing further deaths.
“The fact that this level of response is required to stop a shooting like this because people have access to these weapons of war and are able to bring them into our schools can never be normal,” said St. Louis, Matt Davis.
The school district has been working to add firearm safety to the curriculum, Superintendent Adams said at a news conference Tuesday.
“The gun safety initiative, quite frankly, was a plan put together to try to address the kinds of problems that occur outside of our school district, outside of our school buildings, in terms of the number of students that have been shot in the city. of St. Louis, and who die, quite frankly, as a result of incidents that happened outside of the school setting,” Adams said.
“I never thought I’d be standing here today having a conversation about a staff member and a student” who were shot, Adams said, pausing for composure as his voice began to crack.
‘s Nouran Salahieh, Holly Yan, Rebekah Riess, Adrienne Broaddus, Caroll Alvarado, Chris Boyette and Elizabeth Joseph contributed to this report.
