President Joe Biden released a statement on Tuesday afternoon, expressing his condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the Oxford High School Shooting.
In a chilling video, students huddled beneath desks in their barricaded classroom as the shooter – who’d already begun his rampage- roamed around trying to convince people that it was safe for them to emerge from hiding. “Sheriff’s office,’ the boy said. ‘You can come out.’ One student whispers ‘he said it’s safe to come out.’ But another classmate responds with skepticism, saying: “We’re not willing to take that risk right now.” The gunman screams back something illegible before calling his fellow classmate “bro”. At that moment, the students began jumping out a window after realizing the self-proclaimed cop was actually the shooter.
The suspect was apprehended within five minutes of the initial call. An on-site school resource officer assisted in his arrest. According to police, the teen might be tried as an adult for the deaths of a 16-year old boy and two girls aged 14 or 17. The teen fired more than 20 shots and more than 100 calls were received by 911 operators.
A crowd of students, some in tears and others huddled together emerged from the school following the shooting. Undersheriff Mike McCabe said during a press conference, “It’s a very tragic situation, obviously. You never want to prepare for something like this, but you have to, and the school district has done a wonderful job preparing.”
After the shooting, parents were asked to pick up their kids from a Meijer grocery store. The school was placed on lockdown and while officers searched for the premises.
According to a 15-year-old ninth-grader, Isabel Flores, she and her peers heard gunshots and saw another student bleeding from the face. The investigators are looking through social media posts to find a possible motive.
Robin Redding said her 12th grader son, Treshan Bryant is a student at the school but he stayed home Tuesday because of threats that there would be a shooting. She didn’t elaborate on what her son had heard but she said she was concerned about school safety in general.
Rumors are spreading that a threat against the school has been made, following an incident where some strange vandalism occurred. School administrators were quick to respond by posting two letters on their websites for parents. According to the letter written on Nov. 4, The letter from the principal states that someone threw a deer head into their courtyard and painted several windows on the school’s roof with red acrylic paint. According to the second post on Nov. 12, the letter assured ‘there has been no threat to our building nor our students.’
The Michigan Governor, Gretchen Whitmer expressed her condolences to the victims. “Gun violence is a public health crisis that claims lives every day. We have the tools to reduce gun violence in Michigan,’ she said in a statement. ‘This is a time for us to come together and help our children feel safe at school.”
The police were alerted to an active shooter at Oxford High School around 12:50 pm. The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that the shooter was arrested and a handgun was recovered. The office doesn’t think there was more than one attacker, and they are currently investigating what happened to cause this incident.
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