Orlando Harris, the 19-year-old who killed two people and injured several others at a St. Louis high school before he was killed by police on Monday, was said to have used the very AR-15-style weapon his family asked police to remove from their home just nine days earlier. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said in a media statement Wednesday evening that before the shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High, Harris’ mother called police on Oct. 15 upon finding the gun in her home. Officers, however, determined that Harris’ possession of the gun was not against the law. Police allowed someone the family knew to hold the gun, keeping it out of Harris’ possession.
“While it is not yet clear when or how the suspect came to be in possession of the firearm after this incident, we can confirm that the firearm involved in this incident is the firearm used in the shooting Monday,” police said in the statement.
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Security Capt. Misty Dobynes, command supervisor for St. Louis Public Schools, told CBS-affiliated KMOV she was one of the first officers to come face to face with the shooter, who was armed with 600 rounds of ammunition for his weapon. She was in a parking lot when she learned of the shooting. “I could hear over the radio. He said they shooting in the main building,” Dobynes said.
She put on her vest and ran up three flights of stairs, her protective instincts kicking in, KMOV and Fox 2 reported. She said she heard "pow, pow, pow, pow" and smelled gunpowder. She went from classroom to classroom, following the scent until she saw the shooter carrying an AR-15.
“I never in my life-and I’m 55-thought I would be inside of a school and having to use my gun,” Dobynes said. “I was scared to death because I didn’t know what would happen but I know I didn’t want to get hurt. I know I didn’t want to die.”
She said children trying to escape gave her courage. “When I saw kids jumping out the window, that was my go,” Davis told KMOV. “I mean hearing them scream, ‘Help me. Please help me. Come and get me. I can’t get out.’ It was a no-brainer.”
Lt. Col. Michael Sack, the interim police commissioner, said during a news conference on Wednesday that the school was Harris’ intended target. In an earlier news conference, Sack read from notes left by the shooter:
“I don’t have any friends, I don’t have any family. I’ve never had a girlfriend. I’ve never had a social life. I’ve been an isolated loner my entire life. This was the perfect storm for a mass shooter.”
Sack said in the later news conference that there was “a disconnect” between Harris and “what he felt was the school community."
"He felt isolated and alone,” Sack said.
He added that Harris, a worker in food services at Cardinal Ritter Senior Service, had a history of mental health issues and his family had been working with local mental health institutions and a mental health care provider to get Harris help. "Whenever they noticed him kind of stepping out of line or going out of turn, they always worked to try and get him back on his medication or back into therapy (...)," Sack said.
He added that the family has been fully cooperative and is “heartbroken over this incident.”
"The impression that I get from the investigator who spoke to the mother is that they've done everything that they could possibly have done, but sometimes that's not enough," Sack said.
Harris entered the school building by breaking a side door around 9 AM, and police shot and killed him on the third floor of the building about 14 minutes after receiving the call about an "active shooter."
Harris’ victims have been identified as 61-year-old Jean Kuczka, a health and physical education teacher at the school who had five children of her own; and Alexzandria Bell, a 15-year-old sophomore at the school.
Sack said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is in the process of tracing the gun Harris used via its serial number, but it's not easy to track down gun ownership after it has been sold from person to person.
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To make matters worse, FBI Special Agent Jay Greenberg reported during Wednesday’s press conference that there had been an uptick in fake threats at local schools, taxing “already strained police resources” because police have to investigate those threats. “The volume has been so great that we're not able to get out and identify and make contact with every single person who has made a hoax threat at this time,” Greenberg said.
He added that as students are trying to process what happened, they are seeing an “increased armed presence” in their schools, “which is leading to additional trauma for those students.”
Another school went on lockdown on Tuesday as the result of one of the hoax threats. "Again that's more trauma for our kids," Greenberg said.
Both Sack and Greenberg assured the community there is no active threat.
St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones used Wednesday’s press conference to call for gun reform. Citing mass shootings across the country she said that for St. Louis parents it seemed like “only a matter of time” before the violence reached closer to home. “And tragically that happened Monday,” Jones said.
She blamed the shooting on people with power who refuse to take action to get guns off of our streets. "I'm angry because as I have remained laser focused to transform public safety in this region, making St. Louis a safer place for families including my son, people are using St. Louis as a political talking point,” Jones said. “The time for thoughts and prayer are over. It’s time for action.”
Jones said the actions of the Missouri legislature have made gun violence far more likely in the city and state. She listed legislators' dismantling of the permitting process, passing a nullification law making it harder for law enforcement officers to do their job, and failing to take action to empower the loved ones of those in a mental health crisis to temporarily remove their firearms.
Jones called for assault weapons restrictions and red flag laws to allow law enforcement to temporarily remove dangerous weapons from people who pose a danger to others or themselves.
She said in a tweet that Harris’ family “did the right thing” and “our laws and legislators failed the victims.”
"If the state won't act, we need federal action to keep our babies safe," the mayor said.
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