MOUNT HOREB, Wisconsin.-
Police shot and killed a Wisconsin student outside a high school after receiving a report of someone with a gun on Wednesday, the state’s attorney general said in the first police briefing on shootings that sent children fleeing and sparked a closing of hours of local schools.
Mount Horeb authorities had previously said that an active shooter who never entered the building was “neutralized” outside the school in Mount Horeb. State Attorney General Josh Kaul said at Wednesday night’s briefing that no one else was injured and the investigation continues.
“This incident occurred outdoors. The subject of this case never managed to enter,” he said.
Authorities at the briefing described the student as a minor, but did not provide an age or information about which of the Mount Horeb district schools he attended.
Kaul declined to answer several questions about what happened once police responded, including whether the student had fired a gun, what type of gun he might have had and whether he had made an effort to enter the school building.
Authorities said several Mount Horeb officers, wearing body cameras, had fired weapons, but did not say how many.
Police remained on the scene hours after the incident and students were kept locked in buildings until late in the afternoon before being slowly released to their families.
For the panicked children and their parents, the initial incident and the wait to be reunited was terrifying. Parents described children hiding in closets, afraid to communicate on cell phones, and one high school student said her class initially fled the school gym on roller skates.
The district used Facebook posts throughout the day to provide updates, with the earliest coming around 11:30 a.m. and reporting that all district schools were closed. Mount Horeb authorities said, without giving details, that the “suspected attacker” was wounded, and witnesses described hearing gunshots and seeing dozens of children running.
More than four hours later, school buses remained lined up for blocks outside the high school and authorities had used police tape to surround the high school, the nearby high school and the playing fields between the two buildings.
“An initial search of the high school has turned up no additional suspects,” a post read around noon. “Equally important is that we have no reports of anyone being harmed, with the exception of the alleged attacker.”
The district previously posted that “the threat has been neutralized outside the building,” but did not elaborate on what had happened at the school in Mount Horeb, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of the state capital. Madison.
Jeanne Keller said she heard about five gunshots while she was in her store The Quilting Jeanne, just down the block from campus that includes the high school.
“Maybe it was like pow-pow-pow-pow,” Keller told The Associated Press by phone. “I thought they were fireworks. “I came out and saw all the kids running… I probably saw 200 kids.”
A high school student said his class was in the school gym practicing inline skating when they heard gunshots.
Max Kelly, 12, said his teacher told the class to leave the school. He said they skated to a street, ditched their inline skates, ran to a nearby convenience store and gas station and hid in a bathroom.
Kelly met up with her parents and sat with them on a hillside early Wednesday afternoon waiting for her younger siblings to leave their own schools. She was still wearing socks and her shoes were left behind her.
“I don’t think any place is safe,” said his mother, Alison Kelly, 32.
Mount Horeb police said they were unable to provide information in the hours immediately following the incident. The Dane County Sheriff’s Office directed reporters to a staging area but also did not provide updates.
Anxious parents spent hours gathered at a bus station waiting for their children. Kaul said authorities were concerned about the possibility of an ongoing threat, although he did not provide further details. He said investigators attempted to interview the students while they were meeting with their parents, trying to prevent those conversations from dragging on into the next few days.
Shannon Hurd, 44, and her ex-husband, Nathian Hurd, 39, were sitting in a car waiting for their 13-year-old son, Noah, who was still at the closed high school.
Shannon Hurd said she first heard what happened through a text message from Noah saying he loved her. She said she almost fell down the stairs at her work while she was running to get to school.
“I just love my son,” he said. “They’re supposed to be safe at school.”
Stacy Smith, 42, was at the bank Wednesday when she saw police cars passing by and soon received a text message from the school district warning of an active shooter.
At first she couldn’t communicate with her two children: Abbi, a seventh grader, and Cole, a seventh grader. Finally, she contacted Abbi by phone, but the girl whispered to her that she was hiding in a closet and she couldn’t speak. She finally connected with both children and knew they were okay.
“Not here,” he said in disbelief. “You hear about this everywhere, but not here.”
Schools across the country have looked for ways to prevent mass shootings within their walls, from physical security measures and active shooter drills to technology that includes detailed digital maps. Many also rely on teachers and administrators to work to detect early signs of students’ mental health problems.
Mount Horeb Area School District Superintendent Steve Salerno suggested that without recent safety improvements “this could have been a much worse tragedy.” He said the students immediately told school staff they had seen someone outside the building, but gave no further details.
“It’s an experience where you just pray to God every day and you never have to go in,” Salerno told reporters. “Today we, our staff, these incredible professionals around the table were asked to perform and they did. And they did it with great professionalism.”
The town is home to about 7,600 people and is the headquarters of outdoor gear retailer Duluth Trading Company. Mount Horeb bills itself as the “troll capital of the world,” a reference to troll carvings parked throughout the downtown district as a tribute to a Scandinavian gift shop that was a landmark for long-distance truckers. tour in the 1970s.
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Associated Press reporters Corey Williams in Detroit and Rick Callahan in Indianapolis contributed to this report.