Fourteen-Year-Old Boy Opens Fire at Ohio School Before Killing Himself

PHOTOS COURTESY OF AP

I’m sure you’ve all caught wind to this story of a 14-year-old high school student who brought guns to school after being suspended and shot rounds in the hallways directing his anger towards specific students and teachers. Check out the developing story from CNN below…

It was only after a crowd of screaming students ran past Darnell Rodgers in a stairway at his Cleveland, Ohio, high school Wednesday afternoon that he realized he had been shot. “They were screaming, ‘Oh my God! Oh my God,’” said Rodgers, a senior at SuccessTech Academy near downtown Cleveland. Rodgers suddenly felt his arm “burning,” he said, and realized he had been shot in the elbow. Police have started to piece together what happened. At around 1:15 p.m. ET, 14-year-old gunman Asa Coon, who was a student at the school, walked the halls firing a gun in each hand, Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath said. When it was all over, five people had been shot, but the only fatality was Coon, who police said killed himself in a classroom. Police found a .22- caliber revolver and .38-caliber revolver near Coon’s body, along with a box of ammunition and three knives, said McGrath. Investigators have reason to believe some victims were specifically targeted by Coon, who had been suspended from school Monday.

“We do not believe this was a random shooting,” McGrath said. “It may have been the teachers he went to the school looking for. … I believe they disciplined him in some manner.” Rodgers was treated and released from the hospital, but others were more seriously injured. Coon shot 57-year-old teacher David Kachadourian in the back and shot a 42-year-old teacher in the chest, officials said. Edward Eckart, commissioner of EMS Cleveland, said the 42-year-old underwent surgery at MetroHealth Medical Center and was in stable condition at 8 p.m. Wednesday. Fifty-seven-year-old Kachadourian was in stable condition, he said. In addition, a 15-year-old male with a gunshot wound to his side and a 15-year-old female with a knee injury were transported to Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, where they were in stable condition Wednesday night, Eckart said. McGrath said Coon and another student were suspended Monday after they apparently got in a fight outside the school.

Coon had a previous arrest last year for a domestic violence incident, and police had been to his home before for incidents that involved weapons, according to McGrath. Police searched the gunman’s locker after the shooting and are watching surveillance footage of the school taken at the time of the shooting, he said. Students said they took cover in closets after the school principal announced a “Code Blue” on the intercom. Students described the gunman as being “odd.” Rodgers spoke to reporters after leaving the hospital Wednesday evening. He called the shooting “very shocking” and said he was “sad” it could happen at a school he thought was safe. “I never thought it would personally happen at my school.”