Gunman killed, two students wounded in Maryland high school shooting
A student gunman who opened fire inside his southeast Maryland high school Tuesday morning — wounding two teens — was shot by a school safety officer and later died at a local hospital, authorities said.
Austin Wyatt Rollins, 17, whipped out a Glock 9-mm. handgun and shot a 16-year-old girl, whom he possibly had a relationship with, inside Great Mills High School just before 8 a.m., police said.
A 14-year-old boy was also wounded, but officials said it wasn’t clear who shot him. He was hospitalized in good condition.
Blaine Gaskill, a resource officer who also serves as a SWAT team member, rushed to the hallway where Rollins was, and the two fired at each other.
The officer wasn’t hurt, but his bullet struck Rollins.
School resource officer Blaine Gaskill is also a member of the SWAT team.
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Rollins was rushed to a nearby hospital where he died at about 10:40 a.m., according to St. Mary’s County Sheriff Timothy Cameron.
Investigators were still trying to determine if Rollins killed himself or if Gaskill fatally shot him.
The girl, who was identified by local media as Jaelynn Willey, is in critical condition with life-threatening injuries.
Jaelynn’s family described her as an “amazing young lady” who loved her fellow students.
Jaelynn Willey, 16, was wounded in a shooting at Great Mills High School in Maryland on Tuesday.
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“It is hard for us not to see her shining, smiling face right now, and to see her light up the room with her presence,” her family said in a statement.
Investigators are trying to determine if their past relationship was a motive behind the shooting, Cameron said.
The shooting rattled Great Mills, a town of about 6,000 located 60 miles southeast of Washington, as officials described it as their “worst nightmare” and “worst fear.”
“It’s tragic,” Gov. Larry Hogan said Tuesday afternoon. “Our hearts are broken.”
He slammed state lawmakers for not passing tougher penalties for violent offenders and allocating money to school safety officers.
“We have to take action,” the Republican said. “I wish I could tell you that it’s not going to happen again.”
But Hogan praised the deputy’s initial response, saying he followed protocol and stopped the mayhem.
“It sure sounds like this is the exact way it should have been handled,” Hogan said of Gaskill. “This is a tough guy who apparently closed in very quickly and took the right kind of action.”
The shooting was reported at Great Mills High School in Maryland.
(ALEX BRANDON/AP)
The sheriff’s department has a certified officer assigned to all three St. Mary’s County high schools, according to its website, to “maintain a safe learning environment.”
Students poured out of the school or fled in classrooms as the shots rang out.
Student Terrence Rhames was outside his first-period art class when he and a few friends heard “a loud shot” and fled to safety.
“As soon as we heard it, we started running,” he told MSNBC.
A student shot and wounded two classmates at Great Mills High School on Tuesday morning.
(ALEX BRANDON/AP)
The 18-year-old senior saw a girl with a blond ponytail fall to the floor, as stunned students and faculty tried to figure out what was happening.
“We saw the teacher looking at us with a confused look,” Rhames told MSNBC.
The facility’s nearly 1,600 students were evacuated to Leonardtown High School about 10 miles west to be reunited with their families, St. Mary’s County officials said.
Parents flagged school officials last month about threats over Snapchat that a student could shoot up the school.
Principal Jake Heibel told parents the threats were “not substantiated,” after faculty and the resource officer met with students.
The shooting comes just a month after 17 people were fatally shot at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., by a former student there.
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