Authorities: South Carolina school shooter killed father before rampage
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Members of law enforcement investigate an area at Townville Elementary School today in Townville, S.C. A teenager opened fire at the South Carolina elementary school, wounding two students and a teacher before the suspect was taken into custody, authorities said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Joey Taylor walks with his daughter Josie Taylor after picking her up at Oakdale Baptist Church today in Townville, S.C. Students were evacuated to the church following a shooting at Townville Elementary School.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lilly Chapman, 8, cries after being reunited with her father, John Chapman at Oakdale Baptist Church today in Townville, S.C. Students were evacuated to the church following a shooting at Townville Elementary School.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this frame from video provided by WYFF, law enforcement officers responded to reports of a shooting at Townville Elementary School in Townville, S.C. today.
TOWNVILLE, S.C. » A teenager killed his father at their home today before going to a nearby elementary school and opening fire with a handgun, wounding two students and a teacher, authorities said.
The teen was apprehended within minutes of the school shooting in this rural town about 110 miles northeast of Atlanta. One of the students was shot in the leg and the other in the foot, Capt. Garland Major with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office said. Both students were male. The female teacher was hit in the shoulder.
Before the shooting at Townville Elementary about 1:45 p.m., the teen gunned down his 47-year-old father, Jeffrey Osborne, at their home about 2 miles from the school, authorities said.
“We are heartbroken about this senseless act of violence,” said Joanne Avery, superintendent of Anderson County School District 4. She canceled classes for the rest of the week.
The shooter never entered the school building and was apprehended by firefighter Jamie Brock, a 30-year veteran of the Townville Volunteer Fire Department, according to Anderson County sheriff’s Lt. Sheila Cole.
Authorities did not reveal the teen’s age at a news conference Wednesday afternoon, and Cole says she doesn’t have his age. The Anderson Independent-Mail quotes Anderson County Sheriff Chief Deputy Keith Smith as saying the teen is 14 and could be charged as a minor.
Don't miss out on what's happening!
Stay in touch with top news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It's FREE!
Authorities did not release a motive for the shooting and said they weren’t sure if the students and teacher were targeted.
One of the students and the teacher were released from the hospital Wednesday evening, AnMed Health spokeswoman Juana Slade. Greenville News earlier reported that a 6-year-old was airlifted to Greenville Memorial in critical condition. Greenville Memorial spokeswoman Sandy Dees confirmed that a child was taken to the hospital but would not release any further information.
Asked about the teen’s relationship to the students, Major said “I know they all go to school together.” He later said the teen was being homeschooled and didn’t clarify his earlier remark.
Authorities said they believe there was only one shooter and that all other students at Townville Elementary were safe. The students were bused to a nearby church and reunited with their parents. They hugged and kissed.
The school has about 300 students in its pre-kindergarten to sixth-grade classrooms. It is in a very rural part of the state and surrounded by working farms.
“This is the country,” Brandi Pierce, the mother of a sixth-grader, told The Associated Press as she began to cry. “You don’t have this in the country. It just don’t exist out here.”
Jamie Meredith, a student’s mother, said some of the children went into a bathroom during the shooting.
“I don’t know how they knew to go in the bathroom, but I know her teacher was shaken up. I know all the kids were scared. There was a bunch of kids crying. She didn’t talk for about 5 minutes when I got her,” she told WYFF.
Television images showed officers swarming the school after the report of an active shooter. Some were on top of the roof while others were walking around the building. Students were driven away on buses accompanied by police officers.
Gov. Nikki Haley released a statement shortly after the shooting.
“As we work together with law enforcement to make sure they have the support they need to investigate what happened in Townville, Michael and I ask that everyone across South Carolina join us in praying for the entire Townville Elementary School family and those touched by today’s tragedy.”
The rural town is located along Interstate 85 near the Georgia-South Carolina state line.
6 responses to “Authorities: South Carolina school shooter killed father before rampage”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
should have just killed the teen and let it go at that.
Sure. He killed someone and shot two little kids and a teacher so if someone shot him dead, there’s no more problem, right?
You’re either still in third grade, or you ought to be.
Generally, you’ll find that some people who have never been in a shoot/don’t shoot position tend to be somewhat bloodthirsty. What this teenager did is indefensible but imagine the emotional cost to an officer who pulls the trigger if other options are available. In America, we, as a nation, share the value of bringing wrong-doers to justice. I personally believe it’s a good value and should be practiced when at all possible. People like 64 have never made these terrible decisions. They form their opinions from TV and think that we should emulate President Duterte. Well once we start down that slope of saying that people have rights but some people have more rights, we’re going to lose the America that generations have fought and died for.
What’s wrong with kids nowadays? First he kills his father, then goes to an elementary school and shoots 2 elementary aged students and a teacher. Were the elementary school students a threat to him? NUTS…
You know? People have been asking that question for thousands of years. Read what the punishment for Patricide was in the Roman Republic. If it wasn’t a problem for them, they never would have come up with such a sentence.
The media should go to the the President of the NRA, each and every time such a shooting occurs, and ask him what HIS plan is to stop these senseless killings. Every single time, no exception. It would be, as Mr. Spock would say: Fascinating, to hear the NRA President’s reply !!