MARINETTE, Wis. — A student armed with a handgun held 23 students and a teacher hostage in a Wisconsin high school for about five hours before shooting himself when police broke into the classroom, authorities said Monday. No other injuries were reported.
Officers who were outside the Marinette High School classroom said they heard three gunshots shortly after 8 p.m. and broke through the door, Police Chief Jeff Skorik said. The 15-year-old male gunman then shot himself.
Skorik said the teen was taken to a hospital, and his condition was not immediately known Monday night.
Officials earlier had said there were no reports of shots fired, but student Zach Campbell said he and his classmates had been watching a film about Greek myths at the end of the school day when the hostage-taker pulled out a gun and shot the projector. He then fired again.
“It was a very scary event,” Campbell said. The teen made students put their cellphones in the middle of the room and broke his own phone when it rang. The class then spent several hours talking to him about hunting and fishing.
“We just wanted to be on his good side,” Campbell said. He said the gunman seemed depressed but “didn’t really seem like he wanted to hurt anybody.”
Campbell was among five students who were released about 20 minutes before police entered the classroom. The five had convinced the gunman they needed to use the bathroom.
The 18 other students and the female teacher, who had acted as a mediator between the hostage-taker and authorities, were released unharmed once officers were inside.
Skorik said the gunman had refused to communicate with officials during the standoff but allowed the teacher to speak with authorities by phone.
During the standoff, dozens of people congregated in a nearby parking lot in the town of about 12,000 that sits on the border with Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.The high school has an enrollment of about 800 students, according to its website.
