REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MARYSVILLE - Authorities were seeking a motive on Saturday as to why a high school student in the United States' Washington state shot dead a female classmate and wounded four others in a campus cafeteria before killing himself.
The shooter, a homecoming prince at Marysville-Pilchuck High School north of Seattle, took his own life as his classmates fled to safety. The incident was the latest in a series of deadly shooting rampages at US schools that have played a central role in a national debate over gun laws.
A school district official, who declined to be named, identified the shooter as Jaylen Fryberg, a freshman described by classmates and parents as a popular member of both the wrestling and football teams.
"He came up from behind and had a gun in his hand and he fired about eight bullets...They were his friends so it wasn't just random," student Jordan Luton to,d CNN.
"Then he turned and looked at me and my girlfriend...and kind of gave us a smirk and turned around and then shot more bullets outside," Luton said.
Rejected by a female classmate
All of the victims of the shooting were under 18, and three were in critical condition with gunshot wounds to the head, said Joanne Roberts, chief of medicine at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett. The fourth wounded victim suffered less serious injuries.
Two of the wounded were boys and two were girls, hospital officials said. The boys, 15-year-old Andrew Fryberg, shot in the head, and 14-year-old Nate Hatch, shot in the jaw, were both in intensive care at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle on Friday night, a spokeswoman said.
Local media reported the boys were cousins of the shooter. Police would not confirm the gunman's identity or discuss possible motives for the shooting, citing the ongoing investigation.
But a school official and several witnesses said he had been involved in a fight with another student. And a friend of one of the victims said he had been recently rejected by a female classmate.
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