U.S.

Two Days Of Deadly Gun Violence Nationwide

February 8, 2008 / 1:16 PM EST / CBS/AP

Four separate shooting sprees across the U.S. since Thursday have left 15 people dead, including three city officials, three police officers and two college students.

In the latest incident on Friday, a young woman killed two female students in a college classroom at a Louisiana vocational college, then killed herself, police said.

The students apparently were shot in their seats in the second-floor classroom at Louisiana Technical College, Sgt. Don Kelly said.

The incident came on the heels of three other deadly attacks nationwide. In a St. Louis suburb, six people were killed when a gunman stormed a city council meeting. In Ohio, a man fired a gun and stabbed his wife in a school classroom, before killing himself. And in Los Angeles, a gunman killed four people before police shot him to death.

In Friday's Louisiana shooting, officers ran into the building within four minutes of the first 911 call, which came at 8:36 a.m., Kelly said.

"There was mass pandemonium, people running," he said. "One officer - the first into the classroom - told me he could still smell gunpowder."

One of the victims, 27-year-old Taneisha Butler, was a mother of three. Her husband, who arrived on the scene, told Anna Adair of CBS affiliate WAFB that his wife was a nursing student. The couple's three children are 4, 9, and 12 years old.

The school offers classes in a dozen subjects including early childhood education, practical nursing, drafting and welding.

Students had to stay in their classrooms for about two hours before being released for the day, said Louis Davis. He said he was taking a test for an automobile technology class when a teacher "said to stay in the classroom because there's been an incident."

He said they were allowed to leave after a police officer asked them brief questions.

School administrators and campus police did not return calls or e-mails.

Meanwhile, in Greenville, S.C., a student was shot in the leg at Greenville Technical College, but told police it was a self-inflicted accident, a campus official said. The wound was not life-threatening, said Brad Majors, the college marketing director. Majors said campus police and city police would continue to investigate.

Details on the other deadly attacks nationwide:

In the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood, Mo., a man who had lost a free-speech lawsuit against the government stormed a council meeting and killed three city officials and two police officers, critically wounding the mayor.

In Portsmouth, Ohio, a teacher's estranged husband charged into her classroom Thursday morning, firing a gun, then stabbing her. He later killed himself; the teacher survived.

In Los Angeles, a gunman killed three apparent relatives and a veteran SWAT officer before police shot him to death.