Sheriff: High school gunman felt he'd been bullied

Image provided by the Taft Midway Driller/Doug Keeler shows paramedics transporting student wounded during shooting Jan. 10, 2013 Taft union High School in Taft, Calif. / AP

TAFT, Calif. The 16-year-old boy had allegedly wounded the teenager he claimed had bullied him, fired two more rounds at students fleeing their first-period science class, then faced teacher Ryan Heber.

"I don't want to shoot you," he told the popular teacher, who was trying to coax the teen into giving up the shotgun he still held.

Recounting the suspect's words, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said the confrontation was enough of a distraction to give 28 students time to escape their classroom Thursday at a California high school.

The 16-year-old's name is on the lips of everyone in town, but authorities aren't releasing it because he's a juvenile. He had felt bullied by the victim for more than a year, said Youngblood, who added that the claim was still being investigated.

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At one point during Thursday's attack, the suspect told the class he was looking for another student, CBS News correspondent Carter Evans reported Friday on "CBS This Morning."

"The kid kinda popped his head up behind where he was hiding and said, 'I'm sorry,'" student Morgan Alldredge told CBS News. "He just kept saying, 'I'm sorry,' and [the suspect] eventually eased up just a little bit."

Students told CBS News the teen got in trouble at school last year for having a list of students he wanted to harm, Evans reports.

"They shouldn't have let him back in the school," student Anna Lise said.

Trish Montes described her neighbor as "a short guy" and "small" who was teased about his stature by many.

Montes said her son had worked at Taft Union High School and tutored the boy last year.

"All I ever heard about him was good things from my son," Montes said. "He wasn't Mr. Popularity, but he was a smart kid. It's a shame. My kid said he was like a genius."

On Wednesday night the teen went home and plotted revenge, Youngblood said. He found a gun that authorities believe belonged to the suspect's older brother, and went to bed that night plotting revenge against two students.

"He planned the event," Youngblood said. "Certainly he believed that the two people he targeted had bullied him, in his mind. Whether that occurred or not we don't know yet."

The violence came just minutes after administrators had announced new lockdown safety procedures prompted by the Newtown, Conn., school slayings.

"Just 10 minutes before it happened our teachers were giving us protocol because of what happened in Connecticut," said student Oscar Nuno, who was across campus from the science building at the school when an announcer on the PA system said the school was under lockdown "and it was not a drill."

The teen victim is also 16, CBS Bakersfield affiliate KBAK-TV reports. He was in critical but stable condition at a Kern County hospital Thursday night and was expected to undergo surgery on Friday. Classmates said he played football last year for the Taft Wildcats.

The suspect surrendered his shotgun to Heber and campus supervisor Kim Lee Fields. His pockets were stuffed with more ammunition, said Youngblood.

"This teacher and this counselor stood there face-to-face not knowing if he was going to shoot them," Youngblood said. "They probably expected the worst and hoped for the best, but they gave the students a chance to escape."

Heber's forehead had been grazed by a stray pellet, but Youngblood said the teacher who had graduated from the Taft school two decades ago was unaware he had been hit.

"He's the nicest teacher I know," Nuno said. "He loves his students and he always wants to help."

Heber didn't want to talk to reporters Thursday, but he sent a message to his parents right after the shooting.

"He texts my wife and says, 'I'm OK. A student came in my classroom and shot another student,'" Heber's father David Heber told CBS News.

The shooting shocked residents of this remote town of 9,400 that sits amid tumbleweeds and oil fields about 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

"We know each other here," said former mayor Dave Noerr. "We drive pickups and work hard and hunt and fish. This is a grassroots town. This is the last place you'd think something like this would happen."

The suspect arrived after 9 a.m., and video surveillance cameras captured him looking nervous as he entered through a side door, Youngblood said. He made his way to the second floor of the school's science building, where Heber's class with 28 students inside was under way.

The suspect walked in a door close to the front of the classroom and shot his classmate. When the shots were fired, Heber tried to get the more than two dozen students out a back door and engaged the shooter in conversation to distract him, Youngblood said.

"The heroics of these two people goes without saying. ... They could have just as easily ... tried to get out of the classroom and left students, and they didn't," the sheriff said. "They knew not to let him leave the classroom with that shotgun."

Some students got out the back door, while others barricaded themselves in a classroom storage closet, KBAK-TV reports.

David Heber told the Bakersfield Californian that he had heard rumors of a school shooting but wasn't initially worried that his son's classroom would have been involved.

"His students like him a whole bunch," said Heber, 70. "He's not the kind of teacher a student would try to hurt. He's definitely someone who could talk a kid down in an emergency."

Youngblood said that the suspect would be charged with attempted murder. The district attorney will decide whether he's charged as an adult, Youngblood said.

The officials said a female student was hospitalized with possible hearing damage because the shotgun was fired close to her ear, and another girl suffered minor injuries during the scramble to flee.

Wilhelmina Reum, whose daughter Alexis Singleton is a fourth-grader at a nearby elementary school, got word of the attack while she was about 35 miles away in Bakersfield and immediately sped back to Taft.

"I just kept thinking this can't be happening in my little town," she told The Associated Press.

Officials said there's usually an armed officer on campus, but the person wasn't there because he was snowed in.

The school will be closed Friday as investigators continue to search the building. Authorities are "searching every backpack, every book," Youngblood said, to make sure the suspect acted alone.

The attack there came less than a month after a gunman shot his mother to death at home before carrying out a massacre on 20 children and six women at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and then killing himself.

That shooting prompted President Obama to promise new efforts to curb gun violence. Vice President Joe Biden, who was placed in charge of the initiative, said he would deliver new policy proposals to the president by next week.

[stArTHf192]

Whether a kid commits suicide because he/she was bullied, or a kid fatally retaliates the bully, the ones who BULLY others NEVER get punished or charged.

Before you protest about bullying, mark my words: Being an ******* is NOT a crime.

[DOGGYPANTS]

Well, is there anyone among us who hasn't felt bullied at some time or other? These young men can't seem to handle much pressure. Yes, we need better school security as step one, and armed guards would help.

These schools are failing at mainstreaming these kids! Diversity is a failure and a lie because it is about Exclusion, not Inclusion. Perhaps these white males are being forced "off the grid" by a feminist/diversity oriented society where men are taught that they are unimportant.

[DOGGYPANTS]

Well, is there anyone among us who hasn't felt bullied at some time or other? These young men can't seem to handle much pressure. Yes, we need better school security as step one, and armed guards would help.

These schools are failing at mainstreaming these kids! Diversity is a failure and a lie because it is about Exclusion, not Inclusion. Perhaps these white males are being forced "off the grid" by a feminist/diversity oriented society where men are taught that they are unimportant.

[flavia47]

And now a "bully" feels like he's been shot. Sounds fair.

[Wript]

The kid may or may not have been bullied, but in his head he was bullied. he could have seen or heard the other kid at the moment he felt attacked. In his head he made a connection. Then he acted out revenge. same scenario led to Ambassador Stevens death. Autism affects 1 of 88 American children; higher than Berlin during the Blitz. Aristotle wrote that war in Ancient Greece caused kids to focus inward. Maybe it's the noise, or the fear, or the uncertainty, or the food rations,... Why does it feel like bombs are falling? It feels like war, but who is the enemy? I think we are fighting ourselves. How many times does your phone ring daily? Each ring jolts the nervous system into a hyper-vigilant state. Waking to an alarm clock, like an air raid siren, floods the body with adrenaline. Coffee and danger lead to dwindling energy; aka zombies or sheeple. Things can get much worse. Imagine the Hatfields and the McCoys on Twitter The US is home to 350 million people. Liberals, Baptists, Muslims, immigrants, bankers, drug addicts, even Commies, all live in this country. We could build, but today we are actively destroying instead. Kids need stability, love, support; they need to feel safe in a calm and stable environment with loving and supportive adults. They get bullies and standardized testing. We could do better.
Family is more important than jobs and money. Children are more important. Compassion is more important. Sorry, I'm ranting. But it can be better. We are just going the wrong way.

[dj4240]

The media is dancing around the real issue of this story, Why was it so easy for this kid to walk right in this school with a shotgun ?? This is the real question..this kid could have killed everybody in that class room. No gun control or gun bans would have stopped this kid,but a well trained armed security guard posted at the schools entrance would have,and most likely the kid wouldn't even tried. Gun bans have already been proven not to work and were completely ineffective...Qualified security has been proven many many times to be an effective deterrent and a preventative...The answer is clear.

[toddiesel]

Maybe not so clear. The gun used here, a shot gun, was neither automatic or semiautomatic. Meaning the shooter would have to stop and reload the gun after on or two shots depending on the number of barrels. This is very different then a gun that can fire six rounds a second for up to 30 rounds. If this kid's aim was better and intent more nefarious the most he could have killed would have been two. It;s also telling about the type of ammunition he was using. Shot gun shells not intermediate cartridges which are typical in an assault rifle. A shot gun shot stops at the first thing it hits. An intermediate cartridge can go through people and walls and still be deadly. At 250 yards a semiautomatic rifle is still deadly and accurate where as a shot gun is basically useless. If this kid had had access to semiautomatic or automatic rifle the result would likely have been multiple deaths as tragically happened in Sandy Hook and other recent places. This kid wasn't even able to kill one. This is really a good example of what sensible gun control can do. In 2012 alone there were well over 70 fatalities in mass shootings in the usa using assault type weapons, lets ban the types of weapons that have caused such destruction and let any Americans who want a weapon to protect their homes keep shotguns.

[Schm1895]

The guy got shot because he was a dick. Moral of the story: Don't be a dick and you won't get shot.

[legalbutunjust]

Nice pacifism of a violent criminal AND gun offender. Wonder how different you'd feel if someone died here. And oh please, by all means, tell us all what being a "dick" is like?

Recall what actor George Dzunda said on Law and Order back in 1990?

"This one took my sneakers, BAM! That guy said something about my mother- BAM! This one has my game player- BAM!" Or words to that effect.

People like you, who seemingly condone these acts, or at least find no greater fault in them that the actions of the person shot, should have ZERO involvement with the raising of kids. And that's a fact, Jack.

[legalbutunjust]

"Moral of the story", too.

[jchip44]

Maybe if the lefties would stop emasculating our males some of this would cease. We have taught boys that aggressive thoughts and behavior is not normal and should be repressed. Boys (adolescent)are disciplined, or even suspended for any physical contact with each other (shoving, wrestling handplay, etc. This is nonsense. Adolescent males are SUPPOSED to exhibit aggressive behavior. It is normal with the hormonal change. I coach baseball, and have for over twenty years. I see the bumping and wrestling and general normal, sometimes impish behavior these young men exhibit outside the school environment. Someone has to be the alpha male. By 14 some kids are just bigger, stronger, and better athletes than others. That's nature and genetics my friends. The point is that when we discourage any and all means a normal adolescent has to release this aggression, (even dodgeball is not allowed here in my town in the Communist Republik of Connecticut)we do them a great disservice. When kids, especially bullied ones finally display their anger, it's an explosion and sometimes tragic in proportion. Young men need some way to burn off their aggression. Obviously I'm a big proponent of sports, but there are other ways. These kids get angry and have never been taught how to deal with it.

[ben-wendel]

so you are saying it is the shooter's fault he didnt see a way out - not the bully's fault for treating the shooter poorly?


i really cant follow that logic. i agree that children need a release, but you cant be serious when you say that the problem is 'emasculation'.

adolescent males are more diverse than just manly or emasculated. just as grown men are more diverse than such narrow gender roles.

some kids just don't relate to organized sports and athletics and wouldn't function as the release you say they need. As a coach you should teach your kids to respect those less 'athletic' kids, after all this article states that the bully played football (what a surprise)

[tibiaornottibia]

JCHIP44 - Idiotic comment of the day. "Lefties emasculating our males?" Bullying has been around since dust. "Boys are disciplined, or even suspended...... This is nonsense. Adolescent males are SUPPOSED to exhibit aggressive behavior." So, when the kid that has the crap beat out of him decides he's had enough, and decides to exhibit his own brand of aggressive behavior (shoot the ******* who's beating the crap out of him), I'm thinking that's "normal with the hormonal change".

[magnumdr]

If every person that was ever bullied in their lives did this we would all be dead by now.

[parisdakar]

You're confusing getting teased once in a while with the vicious taunting and humiliation some kids receive every day of their school lives.

[NeoGraphix00]

The best statement I've heard so far came from:

quantum_analys1s replies: Shooting a bully is justified just as a battered spouse is justified shooting his or her abuser.

It's no different.

I agree 100% with this statement