A 15-year-old sophomore student opened fire at his Michigan high school Tuesday, killing three students and injuring six other people, including a teacher, authorities said.
Oakland County’s Undersheriff Mike McCabe said at a press conference that he did not know what the attacker’s motives were for attacking Oxford High School in Oxford Township, a community of around 22,000 people about 30 miles north of Detroit.
Officers responded to a spate of distress calls about an active rifleman at the school at around 12.55 p.m. McCabe said. Authorities arrested the suspect at the school and found a semi-automatic pistol and several clips.
“MPs confronted him, he had the gun, they took him into custody,” McCabe said, adding that the suspect was not injured in his arrest and that he refused to tell how he brought the gun to the school .
Authorities did not immediately disclose the names of the suspect or victims. Around 1,700 students attend the school.
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Tim Throne, the superintendent of Oxford Community Schools, said he did not yet know the names of the victims or whether their families had been contacted.
“I’m shocked. It’s devastating,” the shaken superintendent told reporters.
The school was locked down after the attack, with some children taking shelter in locked classrooms while officers searched the premises. They were later taken to a nearby Meijer grocery store to be picked up by their parents.
Isabel Flores told WJBK-TV that she and other students heard gunshots and saw another student bleeding from the face.
They then ran out of the area through the back of the school, said Flores, a 15-year-old ninth grader.
McCabe said investigators would search social media posts for evidence of a possible motive.
Robin Redding said her son, Treshan Bryant, was 12th grade at school but stayed home Tuesday. She said he heard threats of a shooting at the school.
“It can’t be coincidental,” she said.
Redding did not provide any information about what her son had heard, but did raise concerns about school safety in general.
“Kids just like they’re just mad at this school,” she said.
Bryant said he texted several younger cousins that morning and they said they didn’t want to go to school and he felt uncomfortable. He asked his mother if he could do his chores online.
Bryant said he had heard vague threats of plans for a shootout at the school “for a long time”.
“You can’t play with that,” he said of the threats. “This is the real life.”
The school administration posted two letters to parents on the school’s website this month responding to rumors of a threat to the school following a bizarre incident of vandalism.
According to a November 4 letter from school principal Steve Wolf, someone tossed a dear head off the school roof into a courtyard, painted several roof windows with red acrylic paint, and used the same paint on concrete near the school building.
Without explicitly referring to this incident, a second post on November 12th assured that “it did not threaten our building or our students”.
“We are aware of the numerous rumors that were circulating in our building this week. We understand this has caused some concern among students and parents, ”wrote the administrators. “Please note that we have reviewed all of the concerns that were communicated to us and investigated all of the information provided. Some rumors grew out of an incident last week, while others seem unrelated. Student interpretations of social media posts and misinformation have heightened general concern. “
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was one of several elected officials to offer condolences to the victims.
“Gun violence is a public health crisis that kills people every day. We have the tools to reduce gun violence in Michigan. This is a time for us to come together and help our children feel safe in school, “Whitmer said in a statement.
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