Teacher, Student Killed In St. Louis School Shooting; 7 Injured

ST. LOUIS, MO — A school shooting Monday in St. Louis left a 61-year-old health teacher and 15-year-old student dead, according to authorities, who said seven other teens were injured.

The shooting occurred shortly after 9 a.m. at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, according to police, who said officers ran toward the sound of gunshots and exchanged fire with the shooter, incapacitating him by 9:25 a.m.

The gunman, who died, was identified by police as 19-year-old Orlando Harris, a recent graduate of CVPA who lived in the 9000 block of Pennsylvania Avenue. He had no prior criminal history, Interim Police Commissioner Michael Sack said, noting mental illness may have been a factor in the incident.

The doors at CVPA were locked at the time of the shooting and there were metal detectors and security personnel on campus, authorities said at a press conference late Monday streamed on Twitter by St. Louis police and on Facebook by Fox2Now.

“If there’s somebody who has a will, they’re going to figure it out,” Sack said. “We’ve just got to do the best we can to extend that time it takes them to get into the building to buy us time to respond and get there.”

Harris had almost a dozen high-capacity magazines, according to Sack.

“This could have been much worse,” he said.

The teacher who was killed was identified by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as Jean Kuczka, who blocked her students from the gunman when he entered her classroom. Kuczka lived in Dittmer and had five children and seven grandchildren, according to her biography on the school district website. She attended Southwest Missouri State University on a field hockey scholarship and was a member of the 1979 National Championship team, which was later inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

“I cannot imagine myself in any other career but teaching,” she said in the online biography.

The Post-Dispatch identified the 16-year-old who died as Alexandria Bell, a gifted dancer with a joyful nature. All the other victims, who suffered gunshot wounds and other injuries, are aged 15 or 16 and in stable condition, according to police.

Students and staff told the Post-Dispatch about their experiences of windows being shot out, hearing death threats, running from the sound of gunshots, hiding, and seeing the opportunity to escape when the shooter's weapon jammed.

There will be no school Tuesday at CVPA or the neighboring Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience, Superintendent Kelvin Adams said in a community bulletin, adding counseling is underway for those affected.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called for an assault weapons ban in the wake of the shooting, FOX2Now reported, while Sack told reporters “it may not be a bad idea” to arm all school security officers.

Monday’s school shooting was the 40th resulting in injuries or death in 2022, according to the Associated Press, which cited a tally by Education Week. The number is the most in any year since it began tracking shootings in 2018.

Since the shooting Monday, authorities have seen an uptick in allegations of similar potential threats in the St. Louis area, according to FBI Special Agent in Charge Jay Greenberg.

“A hoax is not a joke,” he said at the press conferece. “It’s not funny to say that something like this is going to happen at another school tomorrow. That’s going to be met with a very swift response immediately to determine if there’s any truth in that or not.”

The FBI and St. Louis police are asking anyone with photos or video from Monday's shooting to submit the footage at fbi.gov/CentralVPA.

Mayor Tishaura Jones at a press conference Monday morning recounted visiting CVPA on the first day of school and talking to students about the upcoming year.

“Now to be here for such a devastating and traumatic situation breaks my heart, especially as a mother,” she said at the press conference. "I'm heartbroken for these families who send their children to our schools hoping they'll be safe."