Another school shooting, this one just a little north of Seattle, near Everett, famous for being the site of a labor massacre on November 5, 1916.
Two students are dead after one of them opened fire Friday morning in the Marysville-Pilchuck High School cafeteria before turning the gun on himself, according to law-enforcement sources.
Police said a girl was killed and two other girls and two boys were wounded in the 10:45 a.m. shooting.
Austin Joyner, a student at the school, said on Twitter that he saw the shooter come into the cafeteria, walk over to a table, pull out a gun and shoot students who were sitting there.
Four young people — two boys and two girls — were taken by ambulance to Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett. Three victims are alive and in very critical condition with gunshot wounds to the head, said Dr. Joanne Roberts, chief medical officer for Providence.
And one is alive with a gunshot wound to the jaw.
Jarron Webb, 15, said the shooter was angry at a girl who would not date him, and that the girl was one of the people shot. He said he believes one of the victims was his friend since kindergarten.
He was angry at a girl who would not date him…and he lived in a country where it’s easy to get guns and ammunition, and in a culture where hatred of women is normalized.
Jaylen comes from a family that is prominent in the Tulalip Tribes. His grandfather is director of fish and wildlife at the tribe.
As residents gathered at the Don Hutch Youth Center on the reservation, one Tulalip resident said many members heard the last name on the news and immediately knew who the broadcasters were talking about. By process of elimination, they realized it was Jaylen.
God what a mess.
So we’ll be getting a gun czar any minute now, right? Right?…
…
It is so discouraging. How many children have to die before we address the gun culture? the politicians will talk about mental illness as the problem but they never really invest in improving resources for people with mental illness.
Carlie,
We don’t even have a surgeon General because he thinks gun control is a public health issue. That’s right, while the GOP is trying to scare their base with the threat of Ebola, they are still blocking the appointment of a surgeon general over guns.
It gets worse, if that’s even possible. Two of the kids he shot were his cousins:
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2024866104_marysvillepilchuckxml.html
From the Seattle Times article:
“The wounded boys were identified by family members as Andrew Fryberg, 15, and Nate Hatch, 14 — both cousins to Jaylen Fryberg. Both also were shot in the head. They were initially taken to Providence and later transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where Andrew was in serious condition and Nate was in critical condition.”
Football at Marysville-Pilchuck high school is part of the story for two reasons. For one, Fryberg was a member of the football team. For another, the team was set to play in the regional high school championship game the day after the shooting.
The opposing team, Oak Harbor high school, have offered to forfeit the championship game and award Marysville-Pilchuck the title. Oak Harbor participated in the memorial for those murdered and injured.
http://nesn.com/2014/10/high-school-forfeits-league-title-to-marysville-pilchuck-site-of-school-shooting/