3 DEAD, 8 WOUNDED AS MICHIGAN TEENER OPENS FIRE IN SCHOOL

A 15-year-old boy opened fire in a Michigan high school on Tuesday with a semiautomatic pistol his father had purchased days earlier, killing three fellow students and wounding eight other people before he was arrested, authorities said.

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard told a news briefing hours after the rampage at Oxford High School that investigators were at a loss to explain what might have precipitated “an unspeakable and unforgivable” act of violence.

The suspect, disarmed and taken into custody by sheriff’s deputies minutes after the shooting began, has declined to speak with investigators after his parents retained a lawyer and denied authorities permission to interview their son, Bouchard said.

“The person who’s got the most insight on motive is not talking,” the sheriff told reporters.

Bouchard said he was unaware of any previous run-ins with law enforcement by the suspect, a high school sophomore, adding there was “nothing to suggest that there had been disciplinary issues or problems with him at school.”

The bloodshed unfolded around midday in Oxford, Michigan, about 65 kilometers north of Detroit, as terrified students and teachers taking cover inside the school flooded the county emergency dispatch center with more than 100 calls for assistance, authorities said.

Hidden in backpack

The precise sequence of events during the violence remained unclear, but police believe the boy carried the weapon into the school in a backpack, the sheriff said.

Police will ultimately turn over the findings of their investigation to prosecutors, who would decide what charges to bring and whether the suspect would be charged as an adult or a juvenile, the sheriff said.

For now, the 15-year-old suspect, whose name was withheld by authorities because he is a minor, was being detained in a special cell under suicide watch at a juvenile detention center.

Three students died in the shooting spree—a 16-yearold boy who succumbed to his wounds en route to a hospital in a patrol car, and two girls, aged 14 and 17, authorities said.

Of the eight others struck by gunfire, seven were students, two of them hospitalized with gunshot wounds to the head.

Target practice

At least two girls, aged 14 and 17, were described by Bouchard as critically wounded with chest wounds, one of them placed on a ventilator.

A teacher was also treated for a shoulder wound and later discharged.

Bouchard said the boy was armed with a 9 millimeter semiautomatic handgun his father had purchased on Nov. 26, along with three 15-round magazines. Seven live rounds remained in the gun when the youth was arrested, the sheriff said.

The boy apparently “had been shooting” with the gun before Tuesday’s attack and had posted pictures of the weapon and a target he was using, according to the sheriff.