ST. LOUIS — A gunman walked into a south St. Louis high school Monday with a “long gun” and multiple high-capacity magazines, fatally shooting a teenage girl and a health teacher and wounding several others before police shot and killed him, police said. authorities. Police identified the suspect late Monday as Orlando Harris, 19, a last year graduate of the school, Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, at Arsenal Street and South Kingshighway near Tower Grove Park. A survivor heard the attacker say he was “tired of everyone” at the school. Police said the damage could have been much worse. The shooter’s gun jammed at one point, a student said, giving the children time to escape. And police found more than a dozen 30-round magazines. Authorities have not released the names of the woman and the teenager who died. But relatives of the woman identified her to the Post-Dispatch as 61-year-old Jean Kuczka, who taught health and physical education. Kuczka, a mother of five, lived in the Dittmer area of ​​Jefferson County.

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And family and friends said sophomore Alexandria Bell, 16, loved art and dance and was always smiling. Jean Kuczka Four other students were shot and injured – two in the leg, one in the arm and one in the arms and jaw. Two other students suffered abrasions and a girl suffered a broken ankle. Interim St. Louis Police Commissioner Michael Sack said Monday night that he was “extremely proud” of the police response. The active shooter call came in at 9:11 a.m. and the shooter was shot 14 minutes later on the third floor of the school. He said a security officer saw the man trying to enter the building and police were alerted. Several parents and St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones also praised the police response. “This could have been a lot worse,” Sack said. Sack declined to say how the gunman entered the building, but said all doors were locked. The building has metal detectors and seven security officers. Sack said the gunman had no criminal history. There are two magnet high schools on campus — Central Visual and Performing Arts, with about 400 students, and Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience, with about 300 students. David Williams, a math teacher at the school, said the school’s principal came over the loudspeaker around 9 a.m. and said the code phrase indicating a shooter in the building. Williams heard multiple gunshots outside his classroom and one of the windows in the classroom door was shot out. He then heard a man say, “You’re all going to die (expletive). Police have not said how many shots were fired inside the school. Elijah Pohlman, a 15-year-old sophomore, said it was chaos when the code came over the loudspeaker. He said he texted his parents that he loved them, then heard four gunshots and ran away. He said he nearly ran over a body in the hallway on his way out.
“I don’t even know how to deal with it,” he later said. “I’m afraid”. Raymond J. Parks, a dance teacher at the school, said he was about to teach a ballet class when he saw the shooter wearing all black with a long gun out of the corner of his eye. Parks said the man pointed the gun at him but didn’t fire for some reason. Taniya Gholston, 16, was in dance class when the shooting began. “He was like, ‘I’m tired of this damn school,’ and ‘I’m tired of everyone in this damn school,’” she said. Taniya said the shooter’s gun eventually jammed and she was able to run for safety. Ranaiyah Cole was also in dance class when she heard a gunshot. “We hid in a corner behind a mat,” Ranaya, 16, said. Once the gunman fled, Ranaiyah and her classmates darted out of the school and into a vacant Walgreens building. Nylah Jones, a ninth-grader at the school, said she was in math class when the gunman shot into the room from the hallway, but she was unable to enter the classroom. The students huddled in the corner of the room and tried not to move as the attacker pounded on the door, he said. Ryane Owens, 18, a senior at CVPA, said the students “thought it was a drill at first. Then we heard noises.” “As soon as you heard the boom,” said teacher Michael De Filippo, “all the laughing and giggling in the back of the room stopped.” Taniya Lumpkin was in speech and debate class at the time. He said a member of staff told them to close and lock the door like they do for an intruder drill, but they “didn’t know if it was real or not”. “The next thing you know, we just heard gunshots,” Tanya said. The first single shots were heard, then many, then single shots again, he said. Ja’miah Hampton, 16, was taking a voice class on the fourth floor of the building when she heard gunshots on the third floor. “I heard a big one and then there were so many I stopped counting,” he said. “I’m confused why people are so cruel.” Scene of a school shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School.

By 9:30 a.m., the area around the school was cordoned off by police, ambulances and a SWAT truck. Students and staff poured out of the buildings with their hands in the air, up Hereford Street to the Schnucks grocery store in Arsenal, where hundreds of evacuees gathered. There, students and their parents reunited, hugging and crying. A boy was comforting his mother. “I’m glad it’s over. My friends are alive. It’s okay, mom. It’s okay, I’m here,” he said. Earlier Monday, Mayor Jones and Rep. Cory Bush spoke at their first press conference of the day. “It’s so unfair,” Jones choked up. “I’m heartbroken for these families. Our children shouldn’t have to go through this.” Bush said it’s vital to get help if you need it in the wake of the shooting: “If you don’t know who to talk to, you can call our office,” he said. “It’s okay to not be okay.” In Washington, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre spoke about the shootings to reporters: “In the wake of Newtown, Parkland, Buffalo, Uvalde and countless other shootings in communities across the country, we need additional action to stop the scourge of armed violence. ,” calling on the U.S. Senate to pass an assault weapons ban and take “other joint action.” CVPA was Southwest High School for decades until 1992. The Post-Dispatch’s Steph Kukuljan and Katie Kull contributed to this story.

        Photos: School Shooting at CVPA Middle School in St. Louis

High school students comfort each other in the Schnucks parking lot in Arsenal after fleeing Central Visual and Performing Arts High School following a shooting at the school on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. David Carson, Post-Dispatch “He looked at me, he pointed the gun at me,” said Ray Parks, second from right, a dance teacher who came face-to-face with the gunman. Parks was prayed by student Messiah Miller, 16, center, a junior at Central Visual and Performing…