The 15-year-old sniper who killed four people at a school near Detroit, in the United States, used a gun his father had bought four days before the crime, which took place on Tuesday (30).
The case has once again raised the debate on easier access to weapons in the country and on the safety of schools, since 2021 is the year with the most shootings in American schools, according to a survey by the Education Week newspaper, at least since 2018, when the vehicle began to monitor the matter.
There were 28 episodes with at least one person killed or injured this year, against ten in 2020, when schools were closed due to Covid, and 24 in 2019 and 2018, according to the vehicle.
Investigators are reviewing security cameras and combing through the teenager’s texts to understand the motivations that led him to kill his four classmates and injure six other students and a teacher in the village of Oxford, Michigan, 40 miles north of Detroit .
“It’s clear he came with the intention of killing people,” county sheriff Michael Bouchard told CNN. Hanna St Julian, 14, and Madisyn Baldwin, 17, died instantly. Tate Myra, 16, died on his way to the hospital. This Wednesday afternoon (1st), the police confirmed the fourth death, of a 17-year-old teenager.
“He fired at point-blank range, often in the head and chest. These are heartless murders.” According to him, the shooter, who is in the second year of high school, fired at least 30 shots.
Bouchard said police had access to the boy’s writings and his cell phone, which was seized. Prior to the attack, he had already posted photos of the weapon and a target, but investigators have yet to find anything to suggest a history of disciplinary problems or threats.
He was armed with a 9mm semi-automatic pistol that his father had purchased on 26 November and was also carrying three magazines of 15 rounds of ammunition. Seven bullets remained in the gun when the young man was arrested, the sheriff said.
The sequence of events is still unclear, but police say they believe the sniper took the gun to the school hidden in a backpack. At some point he went to the college bathroom and came out shooting.
The shooting was no more serious because officers intercepted the sniper in a hallway as he advanced with the pistol. Upon seeing the police, the teenager put his hands on his head and surrendered.
Arrested, he refused to speak to investigators after his parents hired a lawyer and denied authorities permission to question their son, Bouchard said. “The person who can better understand why isn’t talking,” the sheriff said.
The boy, who was unharmed, is being held in a special cell for cases where there is a possibility of suicide at a juvenile detention center, said Oakland County Chief David Coulter.
Among the six students hit by gunfire, there are young people in critical condition, with injuries to the head and chest. The professor treated an injured shoulder and has already left the hospital.
Data released in September by the US government show that the total number of homicides in the country soared during the pandemic. With 21,500 murders in 2020, the last year of Donald Trump’s government, the death rate in the US was 6.5 homicides for every 100,000 inhabitants.
Since 1998, the country has not registered such a high number, according to the data, and from 1999 onwards this figure was always below 6. The information also shows that this was the biggest increase between one year and another in the FBI’s historical series , the American Federal Police. There was a 27.4% growth compared to 2019, when the US recorded a rate of 5.1 homicides per 100,000 people.
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