BENTON, Ky. (AP/LEX 18) — A student opened fire Tuesday morning inside a rural Kentucky high school, killing two fellow students and injuring 17 others in the nation’s first fatal school shooting of 2018.
Marshall County Sheriff’s deputies apprehended a 15-year-old male suspect and said no one else was immediately suspected in the crime.
Gov. Matt Bevin, speaking at an afternoon news conference at the Marshall County Board of Education, said both victims were also 15-year-olds — a boy and a girl — and that one died at the scene and another died at an area hospital.
Kentucky State Police Commissioner Richard Sanders says the suspect in the fatal shooting at a Kentucky high school was armed with a handgun.
Hundreds of students ran for their lives from Marshall County High School, jumping into cars and running down a highway, some not stopping until they reached a McDonald’s restaurant more than a mile away.
Bevin said 19 students were injured in the incident, including 14 who suffered gunshot wounds. Bevin and police officials said the suspect will face murder and attempted murder charges.
