[url]http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-school-shooting1113nov13.story?coll=la%2Dap%2Dtopnews%2Dheadlines[/url]

Teen Takes Hostages, Kills Self
By DEE-ANN DURBIN
Associated Press Writer

November 13 2001, 3:24 AM PST

CARO, Mich. -- A 17-year-old gunman who killed himself after a three-hour hostage standoff in his classroom was a somber, polite student who showed no warning signs of violence, his principal said Tuesday.

"I've had people I've expelled for threatening to kill people. It wasn't one of those who did it. It was a kid who never popped up on my radar," said Erl Nordstrom, principal of the Caro Learning Center, an alternative high school for troubled students.

Chris Buschbacher was upset over a breakup with his girlfriend two days before Monday's standoff, Tuscola County Undersheriff Jim Jashinske said. The teen hid a .22-caliber rifle, a 20-gauge shotgun and a tube of gunpowder in a locker room shower stall sometime Monday.

The girl, who wasn't named by police, was in a classroom with a teacher and two other girls when Buschbacher walked in with the guns Monday afternoon, Jashinske said.

She and another girl ran to Nordstrom's office, saying Buschbacher was firing a cap gun. Audrea Jackson, 15, and science teacher Joseph Gottler were taken hostage.

When Nordstrom entered the classroom, he found Buschbacher seated at Gottler's desk.

"He said, `Erl, get out of here,"' Nordstrom said.

The teen then fired a warning shot in Nordstrom's direction, the principal said.

Nordstrom, who said he didn't see the hostages, instructed his secretary to call 911, and he evacuated the building room by room.

Nordstrom returned after the evacuation, but Buschbacher threatened to shoot again.

After negotiations with sheriff's Lt. James Giroux, Buschbacher released Jackson in exchange for a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, and freed Gottler about an hour and a half later. Neither was injured.

The teen's mother came to the scene, but he refused to speak with her, Jashinske said.

Buschbacher shot himself in the head in the classroom while a state police emergency response team was preparing to enter the building.

The teen brought the guns from his Caro home where he lived with his mother and stepfather, authorities said. Jashinske said Buschbacher had no criminal record.

Schools in the town don't have metal detectors, security checkpoints or guards, but 15-year-old Matt Franklin, a sophomore at nearby Caro Community High School, said he wished they did.

"If it happened there, it could happen anywhere," he said.

About 110 teen-agers with attendance or discipline problems are students at Caro Learning Center, about 75 miles north of Detroit. It was closed Tuesday.

Buschbacher had been there for two years because of minor discipline problems, according to the principal.

"He was very low-key. To be honest with you, I don't think I ever saw the kid smile. He was respectful. He always said, `Hi,"' Nordstrom said.

Copyright 2001 Associated Press

Hadn't seen this anywhere, maybe the tide is turning as to the media on this matter.

Those guns must have
been broken.
If they were working
right they would have
made him shoot the hostages.

Talk about someone in need of some Paxil.

nahh.. the media has never cared about standoff-suicides (not even in the ones in schools it seems) where some dude all acts like he's gonna take people with him, screams "dog day afternoon" style for a while and then paints the walls with himself without harm to anyone else. nothing lost nothing gained.

If he wasn't such a little attention whore and did it at home like NORMAL worthless suicidal freaks do, at least his parents would have to foot the bill for the cleanup instead of the city.

it's one of those alternative schools too, they probably appreciated the show and didn't freak out, cry and write poetry like normal suburban school kids do, alas: no news material.

At least this vegetable got the order right.  Most DA's get it backwards.

.22 rifle, 20 guage shotgun, and a tube of Gunpowder?

a TUBE?  huh?

How did this kid hide these two guns in a shower stall?  A shower stall??  

Weird story.

probably "tube of gunpowder" = "the 20g shell (#8 bs probably) that he didn't off himself with" the spent one's known as "the empty tube previously containing gunpowder"

Naw, the news media is too busy at the moment reporting on Afghanistan, and little kitties stuck in trees

Didn't anyone tell the kid that it's illegal to bring guns to school and threaten people? Someone must have pointed that out to him and he shot himself from the embarrassment.

Does anyone feel that these two statements are mutually exclusive?

"a somber, polite student who showed no warning signs of violence"

"About 110 teen-agers with attendance or discipline problems are students at Caro Learning Center"

But, of course:
"If it happened there, it could happen anywhere,"
Anywhere where you've concentrated your mentally troubled youth, that is.

GunMan...first of all he wasnt a "MAN" he was a boy and second how in the hell was he a gunman?