Nevada middle-school student shoots, kills teacher, wounds 2 students

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By Los Angeles Times & CNN





SPARKS, Nev. -- A middle-school student in Sparks, Nev., shot and killed a teacher and wounded two other students before apparently killing himself on campus, police said Monday.

Further details about the shooting at Sparks Middle School shortly after 7 a.m. remained scant after a news conference late Monday morning, but witnesses described hearing shots on the playground before a student in khakis gunned down a teacher.

The shooter used a handgun taken from his parents, a federal law enforcement source who was briefed on the situation told CNN. The shooter then used the handgun to shoot and kill himself, the source said.


Mike Landsberry, a math teacher at the school, was killed in the shooting, Sparks Mayor Geno Martini told CNN. In addition to his work as a teacher, Landsberry also had served in the military, including several tours in Afghanistan as a Marine, Martini said.


"It's very unfortunate that (the life of) someone like that, who protected our country over there and came back alive ... had to be taken at his work, at a school," Martini said. "It's very devastating."


A student who saw the shooting told the Reno Gazette-Journal that he and his friends were by the school basketball court when they heard a loud pop, followed by screaming.


“The teacher came to investigate,” 8th-grader Kyle Nucum, 13, told the Gazette.  “I thought it was a firecracker at first, but the student was pointing a gun at the teacher after the teacher told him to put it down, and the student fired a shot at the teacher and the teacher fell and everybody ran away.


"And we ran across the field to get somewhere safe and while we were running we heard about four or five more shots and we just got somewhere safe."



Andrew Thompson, a 7th grade student at Sparks Middle School, said Monday on KOLO-TV that the shooter, a student, “started getting mad and shoots one of my friends.”

“He got shot in the shoulder,” Thompson said. Then, the shooter came near a teacher “and said ‘back up.’ The teacher backed up, and he pulled the trigger.”

The student suspect was not immediately identified.

Police said that one of the two wounded students had been through surgery as of late Monday morning.

Their current medical conditions could not immediately be confirmed with the Renown Regional Medical Center, where the two students were originally taken in critical condition.

Police said about 20 to 30 students witnessed the shooting and will be questioned. The school was swept for explosives, police said, and none were found. Parents were told to show identification when picking up their children at a nearby school.

Dale Lundin, a site facilities coordinator at Sparks Middle School, told the Los Angeles Times that “it’s been a very scary morning.”

“I was in the building, it was just going to be a few minutes before the entry bell rang, and then there was a lot of commotion going on out in the hallway,” Lundin said. “I stepped into the hallway, heard a couple of gun shots … checked the hallway … and stepped into my office and closed the door.”

Lundin added, “It’s that same old story,” Lundin said. “You never really think that it’s going to happen at your place of work, or in this case, your school, when it does happen it kind of puts you in shock.”

That sentiment was echoed by school, community and state officials as Sparks came to grips with a traumatic act of school violence that brought parents streaming to the school in hopes that their children were safe.

“It’s been said that it’s a tragic day in the city of Sparks. Our hearts go out to all those affected,” Martini told reporters. “The city itself is very safe, this is just an isolated incident.

“It’s very, very tragic,” Martini added. “I’m saddened to be here.”

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval said that he’d ordered the state’s lieutenant governor and state schools superintendent to Sparks to assist the local effort.