Student shoots himself at School

Not too much news on this yet as I believe it has just happened.

Student Shot


Any more links with more info would be appreciated.

When things like this happen, I always wonder how bad has it gotten for our kids these days, compared to when I was young and in school.

[url=http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-12-12T164939Z_01_N12288185_RTRUKOC_0_US-SCHOOL-SHOOTING.xml&rss]LINK[/ur l]


there you go,

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A student at a high school in suburban Philadelphia shot himself at school with a rifle on Tuesday, school authorities said.

There was no immediate word on the student's condition and there were no other injuries reported.

Springfield High School buildings were locked down and encouraged parents to stay away until more information was available, a posting on the school's Web site said.

The shooting occurred at the school in Montgomery County, about 15 miles north of Philadelphia, according to the Web site.

Why take it too the school hey, maybe he was planning on taking others with him, but decided not too

That would be a best case scenario...

It only says he shot himself... maybe it was by mistake?

I know it sounds dumb but hey... it happens

They don't even know about his condition, I say it's pretty to guess the condition of a person if he shot himself in the head

He can't shoot himself, you can't just take a gun into school with no intentions lol, specially a rifle as it says!!!

I doubt if it was a mistake.. Some people who are suicidal like to make "statements" like this.. I had a friend who use to have fantasies of going to a Wal-Mart in his home town and just yelling, "Hey, everyone, screw you," and then blowing his head off in front of them. I know it's sick, but there are people out there like that.

Lol!

Sorry guys I wasnt clear

What I meant is that maybe it wasnt his intentions to shoot himself right away

maybe it was a young guy with a wish to emulate columbine or any other school shooting AND that he accidentaly shot himself

Because they don't specify the location of the wounds

If it's in the foot for example, we might think he wasnt looking forward to kill himself

Well, did this kid kill himself or was he just shot..??.I mean, there is nothing real clear about this story.

[edit on 12-12-2006 by SpeakerofTruth]

Reason he thinks of doing it in a public place, is mainly due too attention!
Think about, you wanna die alone and not just be rememberd by parents.
You wanna be rememberd by strangers forever scarring them with image of you blowing your brains out.
Main thing you fear of death is people forgetting you, so you want as many people too remember you as possible.

Also if they depressed when suicide, i guees commiting suicide in public place, takes away some sort of mind way of being lonely, you never know, we all think different and have different personalitys!

I think we should take our personalities evaluations with a grain of salt, since like speakeroftruth said, the article is unclear at best

Clearly more details are needed, but it's correct that the average unhappy teenager who wants to commit suicide will want to go out with a bang. Especially if the unhappiness is brought on by people at school, the guy most likely wanted to take them out too, or at least have them directly affected by his death, instead of dying quietly at home and being forgotten within two weeks.

www.philly.com...

During the next few minutes, Halligan moved through several second-floor hallways, stopping in front of the library, where many students were hiding under tables, some crying. Then there was a "pop-pop-pop." Halligan fired three shots through his chin, one fatal, said Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor.

Of course, police, who perhaps realized the absurdity of three self-inflicted gunshots to the head, quickly changed the story to one bullet fired into his head to commit suicide after he fired five initial shots into the walls of the school. However, an interview with student witness Matt Hoffman backs up this initial version; he describes the first volley of shots, a pause, and "then (he) heard two more shots ... when the kid shot himself."

At another news conference the next day the DA alluded to perhaps another theory of what happened:
"...there was some speculation that it might have been a police round... it is clearly... was ruled out as impossible." (KYN NewsRadio) Though it should be noted that police admit to being inside the school when the last shot was fired.

Unfortunately ballistics evidence may not help end the controversy, as the DA indicated:

"One of the things that I have to decide is, do I have the detectives dig the slugs out of the wall or literally ruin the walls to get to them," he said, explaining that only the fatal round will be recovered.

There will be no ruined walls in the schools of Springfield Township!! No sirree!!

Police shot him maybe, what the hell?, would make sense if he fired two shots into wall for fun, and police shot him too take him down, dunno *shrugs*

According to the Houston Chronicle, the student fired two shots into the ceiling and then shot himself... The report stated that it was obvious that the student didn't intend to harm anyone else. The motive that the Chronicle gave was that he was "distraught" over his parents taking away his "after school activities," due to poor grades.

[edit on 16-12-2006 by SpeakerofTruth]

Originally posted by SpeakerofTruth
The motive that the Chronicle gave was that he was "distraught" over his parents taking away his "after school activities," due to poor grades.

What do you want to bet that these "after school activities" will turn out to be videogames?
Further, it will become ammo for people to start moaning about how evil violent videogames are. Once again, they will be rolled out as the good 'ol scapegoat for dysfunctional youth.

Actually the after-school activity referred to was volunteering as a local firefighter.

------------
So let us now ask a couple of questions:

1) What was the motive? No witness said that Halligan was depressed, uncommunicative, or had suffered mood changes beforehand. Though some said his personality was 'different,' and there was mention of teasing, he was not unpopular, and in fact had several friends; more often he was described as a 'do-gooder' or jokester. And I am suspicious of the speed between the alleged trigger event--being threatened with loss of his free time if his grades didn't improve--and when the plot was put into motion, which would have been sometime that late evening when he shortened the rifle so it could fit into the gym bag. Though I am no expert on the subject, I don't think you go from being a regular kid to suicidal because of some minor setback in that short span of time. Unless.... he just started with a regiman of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Then I would believe it. Though there is no word on his medical record.

2) There was a pistol in that locked gun closet also. Wouldn't it make more sense to bring a pistol to a suicide than a long gun, which is always a dicier proposition?

3) If the actions of his parents made him suicidal, why did he kill himself in such a public manner at school? Even the amateur profiler can tell that this is an act against the school itself or against his fellow students. Halligan must have known that firing the gun in that school would be a severely traumatic event to those forced to witness it. Is that why he started firing in the most crowded parts of the school?

4) There is no indication that Halligan was late leaving his house that morning. Where was he in that missing 45min to an hour before he finally made it to his first class? That is a question none of the investigators seems to be curious about.

5) Out of 18 rounds loaded into the weapon, 6 were fired, and 12 unfired rounds were still loaded into the weapon. An additional 2 unfired rounds were found in his pocket, and I think that is significant. It reminds me of TJ Soloman, the kid from Conyers, Georgia who wounded five of his classmates a month after Columbine. After his arest, they found two rounds that were taped to his chest underneath his clothing. I guess you could call these "suicide rounds." After all, if you're going on a kamikazee-style attack, its damn embarrasing to run of ammo before you off yourself. So a couple of rounds are always kept in reserve for such possibilities. But if Halligan had those two bullets reserved for his suicide, what were the other 18 already loaded into the weapon for? The sheriff said the opening salvo of rounds were to keep everybody down and out of the line of fire. So why didn't he just go into a quiet corner of the school to do it?

6) A bomb-sniffing dog indicated on the gym bag belonging to the kid. A bomb squad complete with a bomb truck were brought in. Did they find anything? Pipe bombs perhaps? More clips filled with ammo maybe? And I wonder if that 'bomber jacket' in the bag seen by his friend wasn't perhaps long and black in color(i.e. a trenchoat)? Halligan was reportedly fascinated by World War II military history and often wore camoflage to school; which is certainly reminiscent of trenhcoater-type behavior.

7) The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has offered technical assistance to Montgomery County officials investigating the incident.
www.philly.com/mld/inquir...233908.htm
Well, its always a red flag when the feds want to get involved. But why would the police need them? Can't they do their own trace via fax/email to the feds if they need their help tracing a serial number? Anyway there was never any indication that the weapon wasn't legally owned by the father.


Hard to tell what was going on here. Yeah, it could have been just another teen suicide at school, like the cops say. But I also think its possible that the cops stopped the attack, perhaps even shooting the kid at the same time he fired his own shot into his chin. But why would the cops not take credit for a very rapid response which may well have saved children's lives? Possibly the cops didn't like the idea of taking credit for shooting the kid in his own school. Or maybe they just figured it would be best if everybody thought this was a teen suicide, rather that a school shooting that was short-circuited early, with its even greater public scrutiny and the ignominy of being added to the list of schools that have suffered a rampage attack by one of their own.