Oct 10 2007 2:51 PM EDT

14-Year-Old Black Gunman Opens Fire At Cleveland School
Shooter killed himself; three others were also shot.
By Gil Kaufman


A 14-year-old negro student opened fire in the hallways of SuccessTech Academy
high school in downtown Cleveland Wednesday afternoon (October 10),
injuring five people. The student then shot and killed himself, according
to CNN.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson spoke to the media after the incident,
saying two teachers, ages 42 and 57, were shot and injured in the
incident, and that a 17-year-old was also shot. A fourth person, a
14-year-old female student, was also injured when she hurt her knee in the
aftermath. Jackson said the students are in stable condition, but the two
teachers, both men, are in "elevated" conditions, which he would not specify.

The unnamed student, who had been suspended Tuesday, according to CNN,
entered the school with two handguns and began opening fire in the early
afternoon, hitting several students on at least two floors of the school,
according to CNN. While the student was running through the halls, the
principal called out a "code blue" alert, telling students to get to a
safe space, with some hiding in closets or on the floors of their
classrooms. The principal later lamented he had no access to a weapon
of his own to defeat the shooter. Police reportedly responded to the
incident in about a minute.

SuccessTech Academy, which only has 165 students and 30 teachers, was
founded five years ago with a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation as a high-tech academy where every student was given access to
their own computer. One parent told CNN that the school had no metal
detectors and that there was overcrowding in the classrooms. Another
parent described the school as a close-knit community.

A friend of the shooter told CNN that the 14-year-old often talked about
how he "worshipped the devil" and said if he shot up the school he would
let the young man and another friend go.

Another student said, "I knew that dude was crazy, man. He always wore a
trench coat." He also said the student wore a visible pistol belt around
his leg (with no gun in it) to school on several occasions and that at
least one teacher was aware of it and saw the gun belt but took no action.

A parent who is the president of the parents' association said the
classrooms went from having 15 to 30 students, with overcrowding creating
tensions among students. He also said there was only one security guard on
duty in the building and that that person worked only the first-floor
administrative level and did not walk the floors of the school, which had
classrooms on the third, fourth and fifth floor. "We've been fighting to
get security back for the past two or three years and they denied it," the
parent told CNN. "Tension was high in the school, it was just too crowded."

MTV News will have more on this story as it develops.