https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...ported-n840171



NEWS U.S. NEWS WORLDINVESTIGATIONSCRIME & COURTSASIAN AMERICALATINONBCBLK
BREAKING NEWS JAN 23 2018, 3:09 PM ET
Kentucky school shooting: 2 dead after gunfire erupts at Marshall County
High School
by ALI GOSTANIAN and CORKY SIEMASZKO
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Two students were killed and more than a dozen other people were wounded
Tuesday when a 15-year-old armed with a handgun opened fire inside at
Kentucky high school.

Terrified students scrambled to get away and within minutes of the shots
being fired sheriff's deputies were at Marshall County High School in
Benton and had disarmed the student and taken him into custody,
officials said.

But it was too late to save a 15-year-old female student who died at the
scene. Another 15-year-old, this one a boy, died later at a trauma
center, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin said.

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"This is something that has struck in the heart of Kentucky,€� Lt.
Michael Webb of Kentucky State Police said. €œIts not far away, its here.€�

Fourteen of the 19 people who were treated for injuries suffered gunshot
wounds, the governor said.

Bevin did not release the name of the suspected shooter or divulge a
motive for the mayhem but said he would likely face murder and attempted
murder charges. The FBI and the ATF have also joined the investigation.

Meanwhile, a small town was in shock as teachers and counselors tried to
calm terrified students who described the chaos in the classrooms when
the bullets started flying.

"They were busting down the gates and fences just to get out," Shea
Thompson, whose teenage siblings were inside the school when the
shooting started, told NBC News.

The shooting started shortly after the suspect entered the school at
7:57 a.m., Kentucky State Police Commissioner Richard Sanders said.

Two minutes later, dispatchers got the first 911 call, Sanders said. And
police were on scene by 8:06 a.m.

"He was apprehended non-violently at the scene," Webb said of the
suspect. "There is no way to tell how far it would have gone."


A helicopter takes off outside a school in Benton, Kentucky, after a
shooting. Reuters TV
Junior Greg Rodgers said when he arrived at school he saw students
racing out of the building.

"I pulled off to the side of the road because everyone was running to
the main road," Rodgers, 17, said. "I asked my friend what was going on
and he told me that there was a school shooting. I was shocked. He said
that someone had just shot up the school."

Rodgers said the suspect opened fire as students were heading to classes.

"I'm distraught from all of it. I couldn't really focus driving home. I
was shaking a lot driving back to my house. I'm still shaking," he said.

Thompson said her 15-year-old brother Shawn, who is a freshman, called
her from the school in "a complete panic" around 8:02 a.m.

"He was yelling, 'Someone's shooting! Someone's shooting!," said
Thompson, 26, of Benton.

Thompson said her 16-year-old sister Kristin, who is a sophomore, was in
the commons area near the cafeteria. She said Kristin told her one of
the bullets pierced her friend's backpack but he was not hurt.

Clyde Lee was at the local middle school waiting to collect his nephew
Isaac Robinson, who is a sophomore and was being bused there from the
high school. He said he just learned a young girl they know was badly
wounded.

Image: Emergency crews respond to Marshall County High School
Emergency crews respond to Marshall County High School after a fatal
school shooting on Jan. 23, 2018, in Benton, Kentucky. Ryan Hermens /
The Paducah Sun via AP
"There are a lot of parents crying," Lee said. "It's a very bad
situation here. We had a family friend who was shot in the chest. We
don't have any other information on her condition."

Lee said he never dreamed something like this could happen in Benton.

"You never imagine something like this happening in such a small town,"
he said. "No one should have to go through something like this."


Benton is a city of about 4,300 in western Kentucky, about 120 miles
northwest of Nashville, Tennessee. It is also about 40 miles southeast
of West Paducah, Kentucky, where in 1997 a 14-year-old student at Heath
High School killed three and wounded five more as they were praying.

The shooting comes just one day after a 15-year-old girl was wounded at
Italy High School in Texas after a 16-year-old suspect opened fire
inside the cafeteria. No motive in that incident was immediately given.

"Our nation's schools should be some of the safest spaces in our
communities," said Gabby Giffords, the former
Congresswoman-turned-activist, who noted that there have already been 13
mass shootings this year. "And it's only January."