Such a sad waste of life...

This new shooting brings back some disappointing memories for me:
www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=207455

About five/six years ago when I was in high school, there was a shooting in my high school (Le Sueur).  A kid with whom my brother & I were acquaintances, named Cory, (it's a VERY small town, everybody knows everybody & their dog's name too) had stolen an AR15, and a .22 LR handgun from his friend's house during a sleep-over, and disappeared in the middle of the night in a stolen car.  The next day they warned the school, and they locked down the building without telling the students about the threats.

They locked us in our classrooms for the ENTIRE MORNING, put heavy duty chains on all the doors except ONE set of double doors in the front of the school which was guarded by an old police officer.

He pulls up to the building, leaves the AR under a newspaper on the front seat of the stolen car, and has the .22 LR stuffed in his pants (but nobody could see it).  The cop sees him pull up, and WALKS AWAY FROM THE FRONT DOOR towards Cory trying to apprehend him on his own.  Cory quickly outruns the cop & gets into the school.  My friend's dad (the janitor) chases him upstairs & around the hallways.  Finally my class sees him run into the bathroom right next to our classroom (Mr Felix's Class).  The janitor can't find him, so he locks both bathrooms (which were the only unlocked doors), and then gets the cop.  Officer Nelson feels fine with this, and doesn't call backup, goes into the bathroom alone.  **POP** is heard in my classroom, quickly followed by rustling, and we hear the door open (but can't quite see what's going on).  That was it.  Two of my friends were in the top five of his "hit-list".    His top mark was the head disciplinarian (The epitome of a liberal power-mongering bitch, about whom I could start my own massive rant thread), who had since changed her name & fled the state.

We later found out exactly what happened.  Cory was standing on the toilet seat in one of the stalls, and as officer Nelson opened the door Cory shot the officer in the head.  The little .22 round entered inside the eye socket (near the side, but the eye was okay), and exited out his temple.  He wrestled the kid into cuffs, and dragged his ass down to his squad, locked him in there & THEN called for help.  Later they found the rifle in the car, and everyone was thankful that he didn't just hide out in the parking lot & wait for school to end & pick us all off as we exited the ONE UNLOCKED DOOR (murder hole).

Later he escaped the county jail by filing down the handle of a tooth brush to a point & taking a female officer hostage (with it at her throat).  He ran off into a frozen snowy corn field in November, IIRC, wearing NOTHING but a pair of tighty whities.  After dark slipped back into town & hid out in an unlocked garage.  When the homeowner went to the garage in the morning to go to work he was clubbed in the head with his own golf clubs, and his wife saw his body getting dragged into the garage & called the cops.  Garage was surrounded & he was arrested.  He's scheduled to be out on parole in a few years...

My brother told me that all the TV stations have rushed back into town to interview our Principal about how our "Shooting" was "Thwarted".  When really it comes down to DUMB FUCKING LUCK that the threat was known 1 hr ahead of time, and the school had enough chains & locks to secure every door & window.  The fucking media sharks always return to my hometown when this happens to reiterate the same pointless bullshit to the public;  They did it when columbine hit too (shortly after my high school shooting happened).

My prayers are with the families of those involved...    This is disappointing & saddening.

saw on the news that (supposedly) the principal knew about the threats and nothing was done yet.  how many more times until A. threats are taken seriously B. teachers arm themselves C. kids learn to be nice to each other (i know, radical idea) and D. parents actually get involved in their kids lives and keep their weapons stored securely.

that's not in order of importance.

to make it worse some student on the news blabbed something about bowling for columbine...

I watched Channel 5 KSTP last night and they interviewed one girl who had heard of the threats made by kid and warned the principal on this monday.  Girl stated principal/staff took no action.  KSTP also reported the shooter is a son of a LEO.  It makes just sick hearing about this.  The most ironic thing is how everyone around there is saying, "I didn't think it could happen here."  I worked as cop out in Morris Mn and we had kids with the potential for this but chief out there had his head in the sand(I could rant on him alone.)  He didn't want us carrying our weapons off duty.  Schools worry so much about no hurting one kids feelings or self esteem that they don't discipline or exercise due caution.

The PD, SO,& Fire-Rescue are all good hearted working souls with a Can Do Attitude.  I am sorry that they have have evil touch their communties. To borrow the cliche' " Stuff Happens".  Downtown Big City or in small farming town it does not seem to matter. I worked in  St. Cloud as a paramedic.  I feel for the area they are hard working people! Perhaps in reality we will never know the "WHY", but we know the jist of the story.

1) where are his parents and why the hell didn't he learn respect for life and especially for firearms? Hell, his pa is a cop...figure that one out.

[cops are people too...just a flawed]

2) the tv stations made rollins out to be some sort of saint. of course, rumours are floating that he was a target all along and loved to pick on freshmen. (supposedly) He went out of his way to humiliate this poor smuck before a school event.

The NRA is not responsible for the actions of this kid any more than the UAW is responsible for drunk drivers.

It is very possible the shooter had noone else to turn to. Or, maybe he felt he needed to shut others out.

You see a kid like that, you have to wonder if somewhere along the way, things could have been different.

Highschool is the best of times and the worst of times. For many, its more of the later than the former.

No matter how you look at it, the situation sucks. My hats off to the phys-ed guy who talked the kid out of his gun. Guy has balls AND brains from the looks of it.

INuhBad:

I have to call you out on your description and perception of "Barnie".  Maybe you didn't mean to come off as terribly ungrateful, but it sounds as though you don't appreciate what that officer did for you.

He certainly could have called for a regional SWAT team to arrive, assemble, brief, etc.  That can take up to an hour and a half out here in the sticks.  I wonder if this hypothetical SWAT team would have had maps of your school.  Maybe, maybe not.  What could have your gunman done inside the school during all that time???

Your "Barnie" was in a position to take action and probably knew the school better than any responding ninjas would have.  I'll admit it maybe wasn't the brightest thing to do, but he made the choice and it possibly saved you and your classmates.  

I'm a "Barnie" and I've discussed this with deputies (who got to go to the School Shooter Class, I had court).  It's now accepted that if you get two officers on-scene, go in and get'em.  Obviously more is better but you get the idea.

If you really don't like police in general or that officer specifically my ranting isn't going to change your mind and that's okay because everyone gets an opinion.  However, I just wanted to find out if you were truly that ungrateful or just digging on the officer a little for humor's sake.  

Now if I could just convince my chief that one bullet just isn't enough these days.  

You're right.  I do have a personal problem with that particular officer.  When I was just a kid he used to hassle me and my friends because we would skateboard around town, and he'd always threaten to write me tickets for self endangerment or something like that.  He was just one of those kinds of old-school officers that was always trying to bust your balls over the smallest little crap.  Like for J-walking in a town where you can't see a running car for 8 blocks, and you decide to walk through an intersection which is CLEARLY safe enough for a senile old woman to fall asleep on.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE police in my home county.  I go shooting with some of their officers from time to time, especially those in my brother's P.D. (He's a cop too);  Heck, I even give my brother my AR15 from time to time for him to take to his qualification shoots & use/keep in their squad car...  They're great people;  It's just this ONE cop that I didn't much like.  I was in no way disrespectful to him until AFTER he started harrassing us kids and try to write us up for loitering in the parking lots, etc.  (I was only 14!!!)  Those of who have ever been through that town would realize there's NOTHING for kids to do there, especially after 6 PM.  If you don't have a car to drive to St Peter or Mankato there's NOTHING to do.

I appreciate what my friend's father did by locking Cory in the bathroom, but I just don't think that ONE officer was enough for a reportedly armed suspect, and his jeopardizing both his safety, and ours by going alone.  We were lucky because the cop didn't get to the bathroom for about 3 or 4 minutes.  If he wasn't locked in, he could have shot several people in their classrooms through the door windows.

I also appreciate the fact that what he did was successful (in the end), but I just think his decision was a bit reckless, and almost cost him his life.  He was just as lucky as us students were.

It could have EASILY been much worse.  I didn't intend for my original post to come off as being so diminutive towards him...  Sorry if other officers have taken it that way.  I'll change it somehow...

Now, Minneapolis Cops...  They're a different story...    I've NEVER BEFORE seen a department that has its arms tied so far behind its back by bureaucracy.  They could try to step up their response times to life-threatening 911 calls as well...  21 minutes average (based upon my 911 call experiences' average) just isn't fast enough in my opinion.  In the end, I appreciate what officers do for communities, and I hope they all go home safe.  I just hold a light grudge against that officer for the way he treated my friends & myself as kids.  The current town cheif is/was a fantastic cop who, rather than bustin' our balls about something, would provide us kids with an ALTERNATIVE to what we were doing that "upsets the community" (apparently old people hate skateboards).  He'd suggest we go fishing, or do something more productive, etc...  He was what I call a PEACE OFFICER, not a LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER.  He kept the peace, was able to talk MANY people out of bad situation that could have exacerbated, and he even convinced me to stop dive-bombing the steep paved hills on my skateboard (something for which I'm eternally grateful to him).  My county has many good cops, and half-dozen FANTASTIC cops.

Sorry Scotter...  

INuhBad:

You don't need to apologize although my post may have sounded as though I expected one.  I wasn't trying to flame you in any way.  Just inquiring about the tone as I perceived it.

You say that officer always busted your balls and THREATENED to write you tickets.  Did he ever actually come through with his threats?  I don't know but would guess he didn't.    

I'm going through the exact same thing with the kids in my city...village...encampment.  They are...hold your breath...playing hacky-sack on the sidewalk on main street.  How utterly awful.  I've tried in vain to explain to those who complain that these kids have the same rights as they have but to no avail.  So I just shoo the kids along when they don't move for residents who are using the sidewalk for walking.  Then the kids complain to me that they have nothing to do.  I just tell them to stick it out for a few more years and then they can complain about the kids uptown.

Anyway, thank you for clarifying but you didn't owe me an apology.