School shooting in Arkansas

D

DannyO

New member
PRAIRIE GROVE, Arkansas (AP) -- A seventh-grader and a city police officer were wounded Thursday morning in a shooting at a school, Arkansas state police said.

State police spokesman Bill Sadler said troopers had been dispatched to Prairie Grove Junior High School in the community about 10 miles southwest of Fayetteville in northwestern Arkansas.

Officers weren't sure whether the shooting occurred on school grounds or just outside, Sadler said.

The student, whose gender wasn't immediately known, was believed to have been shot three times. Neither the student nor the officer's injuries were believed to be life-threatening.

Two years ago, two students at Jonesboro Westside Middle School set off a fire alarm on their campus and opened fire with rifles as students and teachers spilled from the building. Four students and a teacher were killed, and 10 people were wounded.

Last year, two students in Littleton, Colorado, killed 12 students and a teacher before committing suicide inside Columbine High School.

Other recent campus shootings have occurred in Pennsylvania, Oregon and Mississippi.



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"Some people spend an entire liftime wondering if they made a difference. Marines don't have that problem."
Semper Fi
 
UPDATE

AP Top News at 2 p.m. EDT Thursday, May 11, 2000
The Associated Press
Thursday, May 11, 2000; 2:00 p.m. EDT

Two Wounded Near Arkansas School

PRAIRIE GROVE, Ark. (AP) – A seventh-grader and a city police officer were wounded this morning in an exchange of gunfire about a mile from a rural junior high school, state police said. State police spokesman Bill Sadler said troopers were called to Prairie Grove Junior High School in this community of 1,800 people about 10 miles southwest of Fayetteville in northwestern Arkansas. KFSM-TV said the student, who skipped school today, was carrying a pellet gun on a rural road a few blocks off campus when he was approached by Sgt. Greg Lovett, a city officer assigned to patrol the junior high.
 
Lemme get this right: a police officer had a shootout with a kid who was malking in the countryside with a pellet gun? Did I get that right!?
 
Well, some of those pellet guns look pretty real, so we have to be careful. If he pointed it at the officer, what is the recourse?

This is still breaking, but no matter how it turns out, it will be played for all it's worth.

Perfect timing (again).

[This message has been edited by Oatka (edited May 11, 2000).]
 
If the kid tried shooting the officer, that's one thing. In that case, I can see how the cop was in the right. The kid just had a run-in with Darwin and lived to tell about it.
If the kid was merely carrying the pellet gun without endagering anyone and was fired upon, I hope the cop gets exactly the same treatment as the kid got at his hands. Somehow I doubt that many kids are dim enough to attack an armed and armored officer with a pellet gun but there's a first one in everyhting.

[This message has been edited by Oleg Volk (edited May 11, 2000).]
 
I would let this thing fully unfold before rushing to any judgements IMHO.

On one hand, the LEO could have over-reacted. On the other, would you let someone point a pellet gun at you if you were armed and not shoot them after allowing them to stand down?

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"When guns are outlawed;I will be an outlaw."
 
UPDATE - 1426 EDT

Two Wounded Near Arkansas School
PRAIRIE GROVE, Ark. (AP) -- A police officer and a seventh-grader who left his school after an altercation today exchanged gunfire in a hay field north of the campus, police said. Both were wounded, but neither suffered life-threatening injuries.

The 12-year-old boy, armed with a shotgun, was hit in the abdomen during the exchange with Sgt. Greg Lovett, a city officer assigned to the rural school district, state police spokesman Bill Sadler said.

Lovett was hit in the face, back and chest but did not require surgery. Both were taken to Washington Regional Medical Center, said Capt. Steve Harrison of the regional emergency services department.

Harrison said the shootings occurred in a hay field about a quarter-mile north of the campus. The student and Lovett each fired five times, the Morning News of Northwest Arkansas at Springdale reported on its Web site.

Authorities believe the boy obtained the gun after leaving school.

The Prairie Grove school system has about 1,300 students and serves a mostly rural community on the western fringe of the Ozark Mountains. The district is 200 miles west of Jonesboro, where four students and a teacher were killed in a campus shooting two years ago.

Classes continued after the incident, according to the office of Superintendent Tom Louks. The office did not know whether students on the district's three-school campus -- elementary, junior high and high school -- knew of the shootings.

Last year, two students in Littleton, Colo., killed 12 students and a teacher before committing suicide inside Columbine High School.

Other campus shootings have occurred in Pennsylvania, Oregon and Mississippi.
 
Source

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>WIRE:05/11/2000 14:09:00 ET
Student, Officer Shot Outside Arkansas School

PRAIRIE GROVE, Ark. (Reuters) - A 7th grade student and a police officer were shot in an exchange of fire outside a northwest Arkansas school on Thursday, but their injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, state police said.

The student left the school building after a dispute with the principal and a police officer was later called to the school after the student was seen acting suspiciously nearby, state police spokeswoman Kim Fontaine said.

As the officer approached, the student opened fire hitting the officer three times. The officer returned fire, striking the student once, Fontaine said.

The incident took place in Prairie Grove, not far from Fayetteville in the northwest corner of Arkansas, she said.[/quote]

Now tell me that armed guards/teachers/administrators in schools wouldn’t decrease the amount of innocent children killed in senseless school shootings.

This kid was going back into that school with that shotgun to kill somebody! The armed officer stopped this from happening.

*Nobody* died in this. No dead children to further Clinton’s cause of gun control. Whaddaya wanna bet we don’t hear nearly as much about this from the media as we have about the last shooting?



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RKBA!
"The people have the right to bear arms for their defense and security"
Ohio Constitution, Article I, Section 4 Concealed Carry is illegal in Ohio.
Ohioans for Concealed Carry Website
 
Hmmm...not sure what's up there. I would like to deport members of the news-gathering services to someplace in Earth's orbit.

[This message has been edited by Oleg Volk (edited May 11, 2000).]
 
Source

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>WIRE:05/11/2000 15:42:00 ET
Student, Officer Shot Outside Arkansas School

PRAIRIE GROVE, Ark. (Reuters) - A 7th grade student and a police officer shot and wounded each other outside a northwest Arkansas school on Thursday, the same school where six students were charged last year with making death threats.

State police said the injuries to both the unnamed male student and city police Sgt. Greg Lovett were not believed to be life-threatening. The student's age was not immediately available but 7th graders are usually 12 or 13.

A series of shootings across the United States has made gun control a feature of this year's presidential election and a mass Mother's Day protest against gun violence is planned for Sunday in Washington.

In the latest incident, the student left Prairie Grove Junior High School after a dispute with the principal and a police officer was later called to the school after the student was seen acting suspiciously nearby, state police spokeswoman Kim Fontaine said.

As the officer approached, the student opened fire, hitting the officer three times. The officer returned fire, striking the student once, Fontaine said.

KFSM-TV said the student was carrying a small-caliber rifle. Lovett was armed with a 40-caliber service handgun.

Classes continued at the school, a school spokeswoman said.

Prairie Grove is a town of about 1,800 around 10 miles southwest of Fayetteville in the northwest corner of Arkansas.

The school made headlines last October when six boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 15 who called themselves "Prep Killers" were charged with making death threats against classmates.

The six students, who were arrested after some of the threats were reported to police, told investigators they had agreed among themselves to kill four fellow students on Halloween night.

Another Arkansas town, Jonesboro, was the scene of a school shooting in March 1998, when two boys ages 11 and 13 killed four fellow students and a teacher and wounded 10 other people.[/quote]

OK. First it was a pellet gun, then a shotgun, now it's a rifle...WTF? This proves how irresponsible the media is.

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RKBA!
"The people have the right to bear arms for their defense and security"
Ohio Constitution, Article I, Section 4 Concealed Carry is illegal in Ohio.
Ohioans for Concealed Carry Website

[This message has been edited by TheBluesMan (edited May 11, 2000).]
 
Pellet gun, shotgun, or small caliber rifle. Which is it? And why cannot the press ask the police so that they get it correct?
 
As well...was it one mile from school, a quarter mile from school...just where?
And why is it called a school shooting if it wasn't on school grounds?

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"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!
 
It's a school shooting because it was a student. Same thing happened here a few months ago; some idjits got into a pissing contest across the street from a school, and of *course* the mediots were screaming about "Another! School! Shooting!"

Think on this: the latest incident was "outside a school." No sh!t, everywhere that isn't INSIDE a school is OUTSIDE a school.
 
The facts are in and I will unequivocally state that the officer SHOULD HAVE BLOWN THIS KID'S HEAD OFF. When Junior takes Daddy's shotgun to school there must be consequences. The time for humanistic couseling and anger management is over at that point!

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"When guns are outlawed;I will be an outlaw."

[This message has been edited by Will Beararms (edited May 11, 2000).]
 
Did you also notice that just about every one of these articles makes reference to past school shootings? What do past shootings have to do with this? Do they think that their readers are Rip Van Winkle, and haven't heard about Columbine? If they report on an armed robbery, do they reference an armed robbery that happened the day before in another state? Or is it just more likely that the story will have "legs" if they can link it to Columbine, and maybe the reporter will win a Pulitzer prize for the coverage.

Dick
 
Some of the worst reporting I've ever seen. But, if this journalistic trend continues, this should be Pulitizer Prize material in another 2 years ...
 
In all fairness, wire services have to get on the wire RIGHT NOW when stories break. Note that all breaking reportage is attributed to sources on the scene. Updates are put on the wire as soon as more sources can be interviewed. It can be quite entertaining to jump from AP to UPI to Reuters as a story breaks.

The copy at the end of the stories is often of a historical nature. These graphs are often deleted by subscribers to make the story fit available space - 'all the news that's print to fit' rather than 'all the news that's fit to print.' Wire subscribers are free to use all or part of a story, or to edit story headlines.

The miracle of the Internet permits those with a connection to see breaking stories at nearly the same time as the wire service subscribers.

[This message has been edited by Slowpoke_Rodrigo (edited May 12, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by Slowpoke_Rodrigo (edited May 12, 2000).]
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Coinneach:

Mediots
[/quote]

LOL

Coinneach, that is great. I think we have a “new” word here! I love it!

Skyhawk
 
The next two wire services will report "water pistol" and "sniper rifle."

Both distances will turn out to be correct as the kid was 1/4 mile from a middle school, and 1 mile from a grade school.

The kid will go to school on Monday and the parents will be in jail.

Just think about how registration and licensing could have prevented this.
 
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