MARINETTE, Wis. — A student with a handgun burst into a Wisconsin high school classroom at the end of school Monday and held nearly two dozen students and a teacher hostage for more than five hours, authorities said.
Emergency Management Director Eric Burmeister’s office said all 23 students and a female teacher, who had acted as a mediator between the male hostage-taker and authorities, were released unharmed from Marinette High School about 8 p.m.
Police Chief Jeff Skorik said the gunman shot himself after authorities entered the classroom. The student was taken to a hospital, and his condition wasn’t known Monday night.
A school administrator called authorities after 3 p.m. to say a student had taken over a classroom, officials said. Skorik said officials were able to communicate with the teacher inside by phone.
A school bus pulled up to the high school’s entryway shortly after 8 p.m., said Bradley Beh rendt, a councilman in the town of about 12,000 people.
Behrendt, who had gathered with dozens of others near the scene, said it was too dark to see whether students boarded the bus, but many of the emergency personnel left the area soon after.
Earlier, a SWAT team had arrived at the school while dozens of people being kept away from the scene by firefighters congregated in a nearby hair salon’s parking lot.
The high school has an annual enrollment of about 800 students, according to its website.
Officials had asked parents to gather at the county courthouse, where school officials met with families.
