A sophomore boy brought a rifle and a handgun to Freeman High School just as classes were starting, killing one student and seriously injuring three others, according to witnesses and investigators.
The three teenage girls shot and wounded Wednesday at Freeman High School are described by their classmates as sweet, funny and kind during a vigil Wednesday.
The United Way of Spokane County is raising money to assist the Freeman High School community in the aftermath of Wednesday’s school shooting. The organization was contacted by local businesses requesting that the United Way start a fund, said Tim Henkel, president and CEO.
Two local high schools announced on social media Wednesday that their students and staff will be wearing the Freeman High School colors Thursday in a show of solidarity.
Friends and classmates described suspected Freeman High School shooter Caleb Sharpe as quiet and sometimes quirky, but said they were surprised to see him turn violent. His YouTube antics, however, were well-known to some of his classmates.
The day before a Freeman High School shooting that killed one student and injured three others, the rural school district conducted a routine lockdown drill. The drills are required monthly by state law.
In the wake of Wednesday’s shooting at Freeman High School, kids will be looking to their parents for reassurance and help making sense of the tragedy.
Parents filled the parking lot outside the high school, waiting for word, desperate for news. Texting furiously. Phones to their ears. Eyes wet, faces red. Hands over mouths. Some had heard from their children inside, and some had not.
More than a dozen shootings have taken place on school grounds in Washington in the past 23 years. The most deadly was the 2014 shooting at Marysville Pilchuck High School, which left five students dead.
