Monday March 5 3:19 PM ET
Two Killed in California High School Shooting

By Leonard Novarro

SANTEE, Calif. (Reuters) - A grinning teenage gunman opened fire on fellow students at a high school where he was often taunted on Monday, killing two people and injuring 14 others, according to reports from the scene of the latest act of violence to terrorize an American school.

The shooting just before 12:30 p.m. EST at Santana High School in this suburb northeast of San Diego first created scenes of disbelief as students thought a cap gun was going off and then scenes of mass panic when they realized it was a gun and started fleeing for their lives.

The shooter -- a ninth grader believed to be about 15 years old -- opened fire in a hallway after loading his gun in the boys' restroom. He apparently fired indiscriminately at anyone in sight, hitting two students fatally.

It was the latest act of school violence in the United States since April 20, 1999, when two teenage gunmen killed 13 people at Columbine High School in Colorado before taking their own lives.

The alleged shooter was reported to often have been taunted by others but ``able to shrug it off.''

President George W. Bush decried the shooting as ``a disgraceful act of cowardice.''

Friends said the alleged gunman talked over the weekend of going to school with a gun but then when questioned by adults he claimed to be only kidding and said his guns were locked up at home. His friends said they even patted him down before going into the school but did not find any weapon.

Chris Reynolds, an adult who knew the alleged shooter, said the boy began talking about the violent plan over the weekend -- but that few people took it seriously.

``Everybody kind of thought he was joking around,'' Reynolds told a television reporter from local station KGTV. ``If somebody did die over there and stuff, that's going to be haunting me for a long time.''

Reynolds said the suspect was often the butt of jokes at school, but that the usually replied with a joke and smile.

``He's a kid who gets picked on a lot because he does not stand up for himself. Most of the time he just takes it. He is joking around about it. ... I didn't think he was serious.''

Boy Was Smiling As He Opened Fire

Witnesses said the boy was smiling as he opened fire with a handgun on his fellow students.
The boy was in custody, police said.

``When America teaches her children right from wrong and teaches values, values that respect life in our country, our country will be better off,'' Bush said, adding that his prayers went out to the students, parents and teachers of Santee.

Student Amy Barney said the shooting came as a surprise. ``I thought it was firecrackers but it wasn't, it was bullets,'' Barney said. ``I saw a guy laying on the ground, and then I started hearing things. All my friends were like running and I was like, where is everyone going?''

Reporters stationed at local hospitals said victims had been brought in with a variety of injuries, including gunshot wounds to the back, leg, neck and buttocks.

They quoted hospital spokesmen as saying there were two fatalities -- one at the scene, and another who died at Grossmont hospital.

Josh Stevens, a student who described himself as the best friend of the boy held as the suspect in the shooting, said the youth talked this weekend of a plan shoot people and flee to Mexico, but, ``I thought he was joking.''

He gave no reason why the youth would have wanted to attack his fellow students.

Daniel, a student at the school, told local television station KGTV that the shooting broke out unexpectedly.

``All I heard was pop pop pop, three or four gunshots went off, and that's when everybody started running,'' Daniel said. ''Most of my friends took off.''

Alicia Zimmer, a student at the school, told KGTV that the gunshots broke out as classes were changing. ``I was probably about 10 feet away from a couple of the victims ... it was in the
middle of the hall, the small quad .... I saw a victim, a boy, laying on the floor, with his face downward. There was another girl standing there with blood all over her arms,'' Zimmer said.

``A lot of people were standing around in a circle looking at the girl ... all of a sudden we heard more shots go off. It sounded more like a cap gun than anything.''

``It was really scary. Everybody was running. A whole lot of people were crying.''

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