Kentucky school shooting: 2 students killed, 17 injured
Daniel
Austin, a 17-year-old special needs student, was hospitalized. His
parents called his cell phone incessantly until someone in the emergency
room picked up and said Daniel had been shot.
Daniel Austin, right, was wounded during the mass shooting at Marshall County High School.
His mother Andrea rushed to the hospital, bewildered as to why this happened.
"Teachers
love him. Students love him. I don't think anything can say one bad
thing about him," Andrea Austin said. "And that's not because I'm his
mom. Everybody loves him."
Austin
said her son was shot in the right arm, which might need to be
amputated. She lauded the heroics of a fellow student and a teacher, who
quickly scooped up Daniel after the gunfire stopped, rushed him to a
car and drove him to a hospital.
Hospital news conference
Sanders
said six victims, including Preston, were taken to Vanderbilt
University Medical Center in Nashvillle, about 100 miles away.
Among
the injuries, three students were shot in the head, said Dr. Oscar
Guillamondegui, medical director of the trauma intensive care unit.
Sanders said the five victims at Vanderbilt were in critical condition.
"There's
never a day you're prepared to be happy like a moment like this,"
Guillamondegui said. "We're just as devastated as anybody would be.
Luckily, we're trained and prepared."
2 school shootings in 2 days
The
violence in Marshall County, a rural area near the western tip of
Kentucky, stunned the governor. Authorities have not provided a possible
motive.
"It
is unbelievable that this would happen in a small, close-knit community
like Marshall County," Bevin said in a statement. "This is a tremendous
tragedy and speaks to the heartbreak present in our communities."
It also stirred painful memories of the 1997 school shooting that killed three students in West Paducah -- just 32 miles from the high school in Benton.
Tuesday's attack came one day after another school shooting, in Texas.
On
Monday, a 15-year-old female student was shot in the city of Italy,
officials said. She was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Dallas. The
suspect, a 16-year-old male, was "apprehended within minutes," city
officials said.
The motive for that shooting also remains unclear.
A number of churches in the area planned prayer vigils for Tuesday night, reported CNN affiliate WZTV.
Giffords: 'Devastating news'
Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who survived a gunshot wound during a January 2011 assassination attempt in Tucson, Arizona, said the Kentucky shooting again demonstrates the need for stronger gun laws.
"The
devastating news about the shooting in Kentucky this morning is the
latest example, but just yesterday, while the nation's attention was
focused on the government shutdown, school shootings were also reported
in Texas and Louisiana," Giffords said in a statement.
"Our
nation has experienced 13 mass shootings already this year, and it's
only January. We will never accept these horrific acts of violence as
routine."
