A teenager shot and killed a student and a teacher and injured seven others at a high school in South City Monday morning. Responding officers shot and killed the gunman.
St. Louis Metropolitan Police (SLMPD) said the call for the shooting came out around 9:10 a.m. Officers arrived as students were running from the building. The shooter was reportedly armed with a long gun. Police told News 4 that officers encountered the shooter and exchanged shots. The shooter, who police later identified as 19-year-old Orlando Harris, was shot and killed. Harris graduated from the school last year, according to police.
A 16-year-old girl was pronounced dead at the scene and a 61-year-old woman later died at the hospital. Seven other victims were taken to a hospital and listed in stable condition. According to police, Four of those hospitalized were shot. The three others who were hospitalized suffered from either abrasions or a broken bone. They were all either 15 or 16 years old.
The woman victim was later identified as teacher Jean Kirk Kuczka. According to her online biography on the St. Louis Public School District website, she was a 1979 graduate of Lindbergh High School and then attended Southwest Missouri State University. She taught at Seven Holy Founders in Affton, Missouri before moving to the St. Louis Public School District in 2002, where she taught at Carr Lane before moving to the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in 2008.
Police later released a detailed timeline of their response. The call for an active shooter came in at 9:11 a.m. and officers arrived on the scene four minutes later. At 9:23 a.m. officers engaged with the suspect, then two minutes later the suspect was reportedly downed. At 9:32 a.m. officers said the suspect was secured. At 9:52 a.m. the building was cleared.