An uncle has described the ‘unimaginable happened’ when he learned his ‘beautiful’ 14-year-old niece had been injured in a school shooting.
Freshman Emma Nees was shot at Freeman High School on Wednesday along with Jordyn Goldsmith and Gracie Jensen.
Another student was killed. Classmate and Breaking Bad obsessive Caleb Sharpe is the suspect and currently in custody.
Freshman Emma Nees (pictured) is recovering in hospital after she was shot at Freeman High School on Wednesday
James Jacobson, from San Antonio, said: ‘The unimaginable happened to to my extended family yesterday when my beautiful 14-year-old great niece, Emma Nees, was wounded in a school shooting at Freeman HS, just south of Spokane.
‘One other student is dead and two others were also wounded. The shooter is also a student and is in custody.
‘The student who lost his life was trying to get the shooter to stop and a janitor (Marine) physically overcame him.
‘Emma is doing very well physically and will go home soon. She is thoughtful, kind, and an excellent student. The other two victims are also stable. Emma and her family will be assisted by counselors to help deal with this. Any prayers will be welcomed.’
All three girls were reported as being in ‘satisfactory condition’ at a hospital on Thursday.
Kathy Strahan, from Brea, in California, told Reuters the student killed in the shooting spree on Wednesday morning was her great-nephew, Sam Strahan.
Freshman Emma Nees was shot along with Jordyn Goldsmith and Gracie Jensen
The teenager accused of opening fire at his Washington state high school told police he took the firearms from his father’s gun safe and wanted to teach his classmates a lesson about ‘bullying,’ court papers showed on Thursday.
An affidavit filed by a police detective following 15-year-old Caleb Sharpe’s arrest stated he had been picked on by the slain boy, identified only by his initials, S.D.S., who told Sharpe: ‘I always knew you were going to shoot up the school.’
Sharpe discarded an AR-15 assault rifle that had jammed and fired into the boy’s stomach and face with a pistol before walking down a hallway at Freeman High School, shooting indiscriminately at other classmates, according to the court papers.
‘It’s our intention to try him as an adult for premeditated murder,’ Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich told reporters. ‘This young gentlemen got sucked into a counterculture of violence.’
An affidavit filed by a police detective following 15-year-old Caleb Sharpe’s arrest stated that the suspect said he had been picked on by the slain boy
Sharpe was being held on one count of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder
Caleb Sharpe, 15, (above in a social media post) was arrested at the school immediately after the shooting
Caleb filmed himself practicing shooting in his back yard a month ago
Knezovich declined to discuss what detectives believed motivated the shooting, but cited mental health issues and suggested Sharpe may have been influenced by violence on television and in video games.
Sharpe had been under the care of a school counselor after talking about killing himself, according to the court papers, which said his parents told detectives he gave them a suicide note a week earlier.
The sheriff’s office said ‘documents’ belonging to the suspect showed he had been planning the attack, although it was not clear for how long.
Sharpe was being held on one count of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder.
Freeman student Michael Harper told the Spokesman-Review newspaper that Sharpe loved the AMC network drama ‘Breaking Bad,’ about a chemistry teacher who turns to cooking methamphetamine, and the suspect had recently become obsessed with documentaries about school shootings.
Another classmate told police Sharpe made improvised explosive devices out of various chemicals and gas and that his father bought him guns, according to the affidavit.
A school bus driver told police she was suspicious when Sharpe boarded on Wednesday morning carrying a large black duffel bag because she knew he was not involved in athletics. It was not clear if the driver alerted anyone.
Sharpe surrendered to a janitor after his pistol ran out of ammunition, the affidavit said.
Frantic parents gathered outside the high school to wait for news behind police tape