Teen shoots self at middle school

• By JOHN A. COLVIN
• Advocate River parishes bureau
• Published: May 19, 2009 - Page: 1A

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

CUT OFF — A 15-year-old boy accused of shooting at a teacher and critically wounding himself apparently worked alone and was intent on killing, Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre said Monday.

Authorities found a blueprint for the attack, along with a journal, in the boy’s knapsack after the shootings, the sheriff said.

One of his classmates said the boy acted normally during most of the class that immediately preceded the shootings.

“He was just being (himself),” said Daisy Leonard, an eighth-grader at Larose-Cut Off Middle School.

“He was laughing and joking. Then as we were all getting ready to leave, he stood up and yelled that he was going to kill us and everyone else.”

The suspect, whose identity has not officially been confirmed, shot himself in the head shortly after 9 a.m. Monday. He was taken to Lady of the Sea Hospital in Galliano in critical condition and then transferred to Terrebonne General Medical Center.

After his outburst in the second-period class, the student went into a restroom where he changed out of his school uniform into some camouflage pants and a T-shirt, Webre said.

Macey Cheramie, a seventh-grader at the school, said the teenage boy came into her reading and language arts class.

“He screamed at us to get down, but nobody did,” Cheramie said. “He then pointed the gun at the teacher and told her to get down, but she didn’t.”

The teen aimed a .25-caliber, nickel-plated semiautomatic pistol at a whiteboard and pulled the trigger once, but it did not fire, Webre said.

The youth made some adjustments and then fired the weapon above the teacher’s head, the sheriff said.

Cooley Gaspard, 14, who was also in the class with Cheramie, told The Associated Press that the teen ordered the teacher to say, “Hail Marilyn Manson.”

Police could not confirm this account.