By Scott Atkinson, Mitch Smith and Neal E. Boudette

OXFORD CHARTER TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Students at Oxford High School in suburban Detroit rushed for cover and barricaded classroom doors with chairs when they heard the first gunshots Tuesday (Nov 30) afternoon. Within five minutes, authorities said, a 15-year-old sophomore at the school had shot 11 people, killing three of his fellow students and leaving others with critical injuries.

Authorities identified the dead as Hana St. Juliana, 14; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; and Tate Myre, 16, who died in a sheriff’s squad car while on the way to a hospital. The injured students ranged in age from 14 to 17, officials said, including three who were in critical condition and another who was in serious condition. The only adult who was shot, a 47-year-old teacher, had been discharged from a hospital.

“I was just kind of sitting there shaking,” said Dale Schmalenberg, 16, who said he was in calculus class when his teacher heard a gunshot and locked down the classroom. “I didn’t really know how to respond.”

The rampage at Oxford High School, north of Detroit in Oakland County, was the deadliest shooting on school property this year, according to Education Week, which tracks such shootings and has reported 28 of them in 2021.

Students described frantically hiding in classrooms and fleeing from the school after long minutes of terror. Shaken parents rushed to a local grocery store to reunite with their children. Officials across the country issued statements of sadness and frustration, as area residents announced a vigil and prepared for funerals.

“It’s devastating,” said Tim Throne, the Oxford Community Schools superintendent.

Authorities received the first of more than 100 911 calls about the shooting at 12:51 p.m. Tuesday, Oakland County Undersheriff Michael McCabe said. Officials said the gunman fired 15 to 20 shots with a semi-automatic handgun before being apprehended.

On Tuesday evening, a suspect — a male student at the school whom officials did not identify — was being held at a juvenile jail while authorities served a search warrant at the family’s house in the village of Oxford, Michigan.

McCabe said the suspect, who had been in class earlier Tuesday, “gave up without any problems”. When the boy’s parents went to the sheriff’s substation, they declined to allow investigators to question their child.

Authorities said they did not believe that the student had planned the shooting with anyone else and that they were investigating whether it was a random or targeted shooting.

The county sheriff, Michael Bouchard, said that a 9-millimeter Sig Sauer handgun used in the shooting had been bought four days earlier by the suspect’s father. Bouchard said the gunman was still armed, with seven bullets in the gun, when he was arrested by deputies in a school hallway. Bouchard said investigators had been told the gunman pretended to be an officer in order to access barricaded classrooms.

In a statement, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer described gun violence as a “public health crisis,” adding, “No one should be afraid to go to school, work, a house of worship, or even their own home. This is a time for us to come together and help children feel safe at school.”

President Joe Biden, speaking at an event in Minnesota, said, “My heart goes out to the families enduring the unimaginable grief of losing a loved one,” adding, “That whole community has to be in a state of shock right now.”

McCabe said the school was blanketed with security cameras and had repeatedly worked with law enforcement to hold active shooter drills. A sheriff’s deputy and security guards were assigned to the building, and students described frequent lockdown drills. McCabe said one of the deputies who helped take the suspect into custody was assigned to patrol the high school full time.

“The school made sure that we knew where to go, who to call and how to act,” said Eva Grondin, a 15-year-old sophomore, who attended active shooter training several weeks ago, and who fled from a hallway to a parking lot when she heard gunfire. “If we didn’t have this training, I don’t know what would have happened.”

McCabe said the “school did everything right.”

“Everybody remained in place,” he said. “They barricaded themselves.”

Students described moments of chaos, the sound of gunshots and people running and screaming. One student said his brother texted him, saying that he needed help and that a gunman was close by. But the students also described scenes inside classrooms where teachers and students swiftly followed the protocols.

-New York Times