One victim and the gunman, a student, are dead after a shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck High School that was sparked by a relationship gone wrong. Four students are injured.
Marysville police said the shooting happened at 10:39 a.m. Friday. The victim who was killed was a girl.
Police said they are confident there was just one shooter involved. The gunman, identified by his family as 14-year-old Jaylen Fryberg, opened fire in the school cafeteria. Fryberg, a freshman at the school, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to Marysville Police Commander Robb Lamoureux. A student said a “lunch lady” grabbed Fryberg’s arm during the shooting in an effort to stop him, and Fryberg shot himself in the neck during the struggle.
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CBS News confirmed that authorities believe a .40-caliber Beretta handgun was the weapon used. Investigators are performing a trace to the gun’s place of purchase.
Of the four victims, two female students remain at Providence Regional Hospital in Everett in extremely critical condition with gunshot wounds to the head. Neither has been identified.
Two other victims were transported from Providence to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. A 14-year-old boy is in intensive care in serious condition with a gunshot wound to his jaw. A Harborview spokesperson said the boy would survive. A 15-year-old boy, identified as Andrew Fryberg, the gunman’s cousin, is in critical condition.
Students were painstakingly evacuated by officers when it was determined it was safe. Some walked across a lawn with their hands up; others were seen running through the school parking lot.
Evacuated students were taken by bus to Shoultes Community Church at 116th Street Northeast and 51st Avenue Northeast where a crowd of parents waited in the parking lot outside to be reunited with their children. Buses pulled up periodically to drop off students evacuated from the school, with some running to hug their mothers or fathers. Some parents were sent back to their cars to get their identifications before they could leave with their children.
Most of the 2,500 students at the school have been evacuated and the school is now secure, police said. There are about 30 students and staff that were witnesses to the shooting that are still on campus working with authorities.
Jaylen Fryberg had sent a message from his Twitter account on Thursday that said “It won’t last…it will never last.” KIRO 7 confirmed with sources close to him that the shooting was sparked by a breakup with a girl. Judd Luton, a parent of a Marysville-Pilchuck student, said his son, Jordan, told him that Jaylen went through a recent breakup and was distraught. Jordan said he didn’t believe he targeted specific students in the cafeteria.
A source said Fryberg had been suspended from school last week for being involved in a fight, and said Fryberg had been bullied.
A crossfit coach at the school described Fryberg as happy-go-lucky and ambitious. He was a member of the Tulalip Tribe who was interested in hunting. A fellow student said Fryberg seemed happy and was talking to other students a few hours before the shooting.
A boy who new Fryberg said he sent text messages to his family asking them to take care of things after he was gone.
When the shooting erupted, multiple students and a teacher reported hearing gunshots, and KIRO 7 received emails and texts from relatives of students at the school shortly after.
“Our son just called to let us know that his kids are OK – his son was about 50 feet from the shooter – a student that he knows. Our grandson and his friends ran away – jumped a fence and went to a home in the area. He didn’t know about any victims but thought there was at least one,” said Tom Hopper, who emailed KIRO 7.
A student at the school, Rigo Perez, described what happened over the phone as he was inside the school.
“We just got evacuated by police to a church nearby. I did not see the gunman. I was in the student store and it’s right next to the cafeteria, and then out of nowhere, we heard the shooting. We didn’t think it was nothing; we thought it was someone throwing down something, and then we saw everyone running out and we automatically knew it was a shooting. We ran into a back room and Mr. Miller helped us with getting all safe,” said Perez.
Casey Blakley and his daughter were driving by the school when they saw the huge police response.
“About every 30 seconds I had to pull over because there were so many cops and paramedics going by,” he said. “The road was blocked off from about two blocks away.”
“There were a bunch of kids on the next block that apparently fled the school. They were all huddled together talking to cars that drove by.”
A vigil is planned at Grove Church, 4705 Grove Street in Marysville, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
A FBI spokesperson in Seattle said the agency will help authorities with the investigation.
