Students hold candles during vigil following Tuesday’s Oxford High School shooting in Oxford, Mich.
Jake May / The Flint Journal via AP
hide captions
switch captions
Jake May / The Flint Journal via AP
Students hold candles during vigil following Tuesday’s Oxford High School shooting in Oxford, Mich.
Jake May / The Flint Journal via AP
OXFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A fourth student, a 17-year-old boy, died Wednesday of the injuries he sustained when a sophomore opened fire at a Michigan high school the day before, authorities said. know.
The remaining dead included a 16-year-old boy who died in the deputy’s patrol car on his way to the hospital. Eight people were injured, some in critical condition, including a 14-year-old girl who was put on a ventilator after surgery.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said investigators were still trying to determine a motive for Tuesday’s shooting at Oxford High School, located in a community of about 22,000 people about 30 miles (48 km) from Detroit. ) to the north.
“The person with the most insight and motivation is not talking,” he said at a news conference late Tuesday.
Delegates rushed to campus around lunchtime when more than 100 calls flooded 911 dispatchers with reports of a shooter. They arrested the student in a hallway within minutes of their arrival. He put his hands in the air as delegates approached, Bouchard said.
The boy’s father on Friday purchased the 9mm Sig Sauer gun used in the shooting, Bouchard said. He doesn’t know why the man bought the semi-automatic pistol his son posted pictures of and practiced shooting, Bouchard said.
Authorities did not immediately release the boy’s name.
The four students killed were 16-year-old Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana, 14, Madisyn Baldwin, 17, and Justin Shilling, died on Wednesday.
Bouchard said Myre died in a patrol car when a second-in-command tried to take him to the emergency room.
A teacher with a grazed shoulder wound left the hospital, but seven students between the ages of 14 and 17 remained hospitalized overnight with gunshot wounds.
The gun the boy was carrying had seven more bullets when he surrendered, Bouchard said.
Sheriff Mike McCabe said the student’s parents advised their son not to speak to investigators. Police must get permission from the minor’s parents or guardians to speak to them, he added.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said in a statement that her office hopes to bring charges quickly and that an update will be available Wednesday.
Authorities were aware of social media posts saying there were threats of a shooting at the school of about 1,700 students, but Bouchard said they were not aware of the rumours until after the incident. attack.
He stressed the importance of sending this kind of advice to the authorities, and warned against spreading rumors on social media before a full investigation.
McCabe also downplayed a situation in early November when a deer head was thrown off the roof of a school, which he said was “completely unrelated” to the shooting. The vandalism caused the school administration to post two letters to parents on the school website, said that they responded to rumors of threats against the school but found nothing.
Bouchard said the detained student had no prior relationship with his department and he was unaware of any disciplinary history at the school.
“It’s part of our investigation to determine what happened prior to this event and if some markers were missed how and why they were missed,” he said.
The campus was put on lockdown during the attack, with some children taking shelter in locked classrooms. They were then taken to a nearby Meijer grocery store to be picked up by their parents.
The district said in a statement that all of its schools will be closed for the rest of the week.
Isabel Flores, 15, a 9th grader, told WJBK-TV that she and other students heard gunshots and saw another student bleeding from his face. Then they ran from this area to the back of the school, she said.
Authorities said they were searching the suspect’s cell phone, school footage and social media posts for any evidence of a possible motive.
School administrators posted two letters to parents on the school’s website in November, saying they were responding to rumors of threats against the school following a strange vandalism.
According to a November 4 letter written by Principal Steve Wolf, someone threw a deer head onto the yard from the roof of the school, painted some of the roof windows with red acrylic paint and used the same paint. on the concrete near the school in the beginning. am. Without specifically mentioning that incident, a second post on November 12 ensured “no threat to the building nor our students.”
Both the sheriff and the sheriff stressed that Tuesday’s shooting was not related to the deer head or any previous investigation by their offices.
“It was another incident, another student,” McCabe said.
Robin Redding, a parent concerned, said her son, Treshan Bryant, was a 12th grader at the school but was at home on Tuesday. Redding said her son had heard threats that there could be a shooting.
“This can’t just be random,” she said.
Bryant said he texted some of his cousins in the morning and they said they didn’t want to go to school, and he had a bad feeling. He asked his mother if he could do his homework online.
Bryant said he had heard vague threats “a long time ago” about the planned shooting.
At the vigil Tuesday night at LakePoint Community Church, Leeann Dersa broke down in tears as she hugged friends and neighbors. Dersa has lived for almost 73 years in Oxford. Her grandson attended high school.
“Feared all of us something terrible. It was horrible,” Dersa said of the shooting.
Pastor Jesse Holt said news of the shooting flooded him and his wife, including texts from some of the 20 to 25 students in the 400-member church.
“Some were so scared, hiding under their desks and texting us, ‘We’re safe, we’re fine. We heard gunshots, but we’re okay.’ They’re trying to reassure us, at least that’s how it feels,” he said.
