Wisconsin: A student was shot dead by police outside a middle school in Wisconsin after they received a report of someone with a weapon on Wednesday, said the state's attorney general in the first law enforcement briefing on gunshots that "neutralised" the shooter. Gunshots rang outside Mount Horeb Middle School, prompting children to flee and authorities to impose an hour-long lockdown of local schools.
State Attorney General Josh Kaul told reporters Wednesday evening that no one else was harmed and that an investigation is continuing. "This incident took place outdoors. The subject in this case never gained entry," he said. The shooter was identified as a juvenile male but did not provide an age or any information about which schools in the district he attended.
Kaul declined to answer several questions about what happened once police responded, including whether the student had fired a weapon, what type of weapon he might have had, and whether he had made an effort to get inside the school building. Authorities said multiple Mount Horeb officers, who wore body cameras, had fired weapons but they did not say how many.
Students locked in buildings
As the police were investigating the scene, students were kept under a lockdown in buildings in the afternoon before slowly being released to family members. Panicked students and their parents described the long wait as terrifying, as the kids hid in closets, afraid to communicate on cell phones. One middle schooler said his class initially fled the school gym on in-line skates.
The district used Facebook posts throughout the day to give updates, with the earliest coming around 11:30 am and reporting that all district schools were on lockdown. Authorities in Mount Horeb said without giving details that the “alleged assailant” was harmed, and witnesses described hearing gunshots and seeing dozens of children running.
More than four hours later, school buses remained lined up for blocks outside the middle school and authorities had used police tape to surround the middle school, the nearby high school and playing fields between both buildings. "As importantly, we have no reports of individuals being harmed, with the exception of the alleged assailant," a post around noon read.
Anxious parents spent hours gathered at a bus depot waiting for their kids. Kaul said law enforcement had been concerned about the possibility of a continuing threat though he didn’t provide more details. He said investigators sought to interview students as they were reunited with parents, trying to avoid stretching those conversations out over the coming days.
School shootings in US
School shootings are quite frequent in the United States due to relaxed gun laws in the country, providing easy access to weapons. There have been several instances recently where students manage to obtain firearms and go on a rampage, often against their classmates and teachers. Schools nationwide have sought ways to prevent mass shootings inside their walls, from physical security measures and active shooter drills to technology including detailed digital maps.
Mount Horeb Area School District Superintendent Steve Salerno suggested that without recent security upgrades, “this could have been a far worse tragedy.” He said students immediately told school staff about seeing someone outside the building but did not elaborate. "Today we were called upon, our staff, these amazing professionals around the table were called upon to act and they did so. And they did so with great professionalism," said Salerno.
The village is home to around 7,600 people and the central office of outdoor gear retailer Duluth Trading Company. Mount Horeb markets itself as the “troll capital of the world,” a reference to carvings of trolls stationed throughout its downtown district in tribute to a Scandinavian gift shop that was a landmark for passing long-haul truckers in the 1970s.
(with inputs from AP)
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