Two students and a teacher were shot by a teenage gunman at Townsville Elementary School in South Carolina on Wednesday afternoon, CNN reports. According to The Washington Post, authorities also found the gunmanâs father, 47-year-old Jeffrey Osborne, dead in a home only two miles away from the school.
The shooter, who has been taken into custody, shot one student in the leg, another student in the foot and a teacher in the shoulder, Capt. Garland Major from the Anderson County Sheriffâs Office stated. One of the students is still in critical condition, while the other two victims have been released from the hospital.
According to the Post, the police reported to the scene after a teacher called 911 at 1:45 p.m. Eastern time. Just one minute before, the shooter had called his grandparents, unintelligible and in tears. They went to his house expecting to find him, only to discover his father dying from a gunshot wound.
Parents were instructed to pick up their children from a nearby church. Tony Walker, a youth pastor at Gethsemane Baptist Church, told the Post that a mother of a child who attended Townsville Elementary told him that her son said, ââMommy, as soon as I saw him [the shooter], I knew he was a bad guy.ââ
Another mother told CNN that her daughter and classmates were huddled together in a bathroom and that her daughter âdidn’t talk for about five minutesâ after she picked her up. The mother further stated, âI’m just so scared. I don’t even want her to go to school now.â
Authorities have stated that they are still in the early hours of the investigation and are trying to find out exactly what happened. The school’s superintendent says people have to be buzzed into the school building, the Post reports. The shooter was homeschooled and did not attend school in the district. NBC News reports he is 14 years old.
Governor Nikki Haley released a statement Wednesday, asking South Carolinians to join her âin praying for the entire Townville Elementary School family and those touched by todayâs tragedy.â