Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin said Tuesday afternoon that a 15-year-old boy shot 14 people Tuesday morning at a southwestern Kentucky high school.
Two of the victims, a 15-year-old boy and 15-year-old girl, died from their wounds in the shooting.
Five others suffered non-gunshot injuries, the governor said.
The suspect in the incident at Marshall County High School in Benton, Kentucky, has been apprehended, according to officials with Marshall County Emergency Management.
Kentucky State Police Commissioner Richard Sanders said during a press conference Tuesday afternoon that the suspect entered the school at 7:57 a.m. and soon opened fire with a handgun.
Sanders said the first 911 call came in two minutes later, and police were on scene by 8:06 a.m.
A Marshall County deputy apprehended the shooter. One of the two deceased victims, the 15-year-old girl, died at the scene, Bevin said during the press conference.
The other deceased victim passed away at a hospital.
The suspect is a 15-year-old student and police say he will be tried as a n adult.
Nearly 100 children ran out of Marshall County High School seeking safety, said Mitchell Garland, who rushed outside of his business when he heard about the shooting.
“They was running and crying and screaming,” Garland told the Associated Press. “They was just kids running down the highway. They were trying to get out of there.”
A half-dozen ambulances and numerous police cars converged on the school.
Officers in black fatigues carrying assault rifles showed up as well. Federal authorities also responded, and Gov. Matt Bevin ran out of the Capitol to rush to the school.
Parents left their cars on both sides of an adjacent road, desperately trying to find their children.
“This is a tremendous tragedy and speaks to the heartbreak present in our communities,” Bevin said in a statement released on Twitter. “It is unbelievable that this would happen in a small, close-knit community like Marshall County. As there is still much unknown, I encourage people to love on each other at this time. Do not speculate, but come alongside each other in support and allow the facts to come out.”
