(AP) Police: Student killed staffer at Nevada school
By SCOTT SONNER
Associated Press
SPARKS, Nev.
A student at a Nevada middle school opened fire on campus just before the starting bell Monday, wounding two boys and killing a staff member who was trying to protect other children, Sparks police said Monday.
The lone suspected gunman was also dead, though it’s unclear whether the student committed suicide. Authorities say no shots were fired by law enforcement. Names of the suspect and the school employee haven’t yet been released.
Two other students were critically injured in the violence that erupted around 7:15 a.m., shortly before classes began Monday. One is out of surgery and the other is doing well, according to police.
A motive for the violence was unknown.
Police said between 150 and 200 officers, including some from as far as 60 miles away, responded to the shooting.
Students from the middle school and neighboring elementary school were evacuated to the nearby high school, and classes were canceled.
At the evacuation center, parents walked with their arms around their children, some of whom were in tears.
The shooting happened on the school’s campus and ended outside the school building itself, according to police.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, offered his condolences to students, parents and staff who experienced “a traumatic morning.”
The school, located in a working class neighborhood, enrolls about 700 students in 7th and 8th grades.
The violence erupted nearly a year after a gunman horrified the nation by opening fire in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., leaving 26 dead. The Dec. 14 shooting reignited debate over how best to protect the nation’s schools and whether armed teachers should be part of that equation.
In a statement on the website of Sandy Hook Promise, a gun control advocacy group, Nicole Hockley, whose son Dylan was killed in the shooting said, “It’s moments like this that demand that we unite as parents to find common sense solutions that keep our children_all children_safe, and prevent these tragedies from happening again and again.”
Washoe County School District held a session in the spring in light of the Connecticut tragedy to educate parents on what safety measures the district takes.
Sparks, a city of roughly 90,000 that sprung out of the railway industry, lies just east of Reno.
Mayor Geno Martini spoke at a morning press conference to assure residents that the community was safe.
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Associated Press Writer Michelle Rindels contributed from Las Vegas.