Posted on 10/11/2007 10:12:06 AM PDT by DCBryan1
Student gunman in Ohio warned of attack,
By JOE MILICIA, Associated Press Writer
Thu Oct 11, 7:42 AM ET
CLEVELAND - A 14-year-old student who opened fire at his high school, wounding four people before killing himself, had a history of mental problems and was known for cussing at teachers and bickering with students.
Asa H. Coon, who had been suspended for fighting, warned classmates of an attack — but none took him seriously.
"When he got suspended, he was like `I got something for you all,'" said student Frances Henderson, who said she often got into arguments with Coon. "I guess this is what he had."
Police believe Coon targeted the two teachers he shot Wednesday. He also shot two students while others hid in closets and bathrooms or ran out of SuccessTech Academy alternative school. Students gathered outside, many in tears, hugging one another and talking on cell phones.
Parents were angry that firearms got into a school equipped with metal detectors that students said were intermittently used.
Coon's troubles seemed to come to a tipping point this week when he was suspended for fighting outside with a classmate. Students said Monday's fight was over God — Coon told his classmates he didn't believe in God and instead worshipped rocker Marilyn Manson.
Armed with two revolvers Wednesday, Coon fired eight shots, Police Chief Michael McGrath said. Police found a duffel bag stocked with ammunition and three knives in a bathroom, but no suicide note, he said.
Math teacher David Kachadourian, who was treated at a hospital for a minor wound to the back of one shoulder, knew of no reason why Coon might target him. Coon was a student in his beginning algebra class.
"I never felt personally threatened or personally at risk," Kachadourian said. "I had concerns about him, yes. He seemed like an angry young man. I did not fear for my own safety."
Kachadourian said he was struggling to make sense of the shootings.
"At the time it didn't seem real," he told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Thursday. "It didn't seem real until they told us that other people had been shot and that he had died and then it became really awful."
Coon had mental health problems, spent time in two juvenile facilities and threatened to commit suicide while in a mental health facility, according to juvenile court records obtained by The Plain Dealer newspaper.
The Department of Children and Family Services was called to Coon's home in 2000 because he had burns on his arms and scratches on his forehead, the newspaper said.
Mu>When he was 12, Coon was charged in juvenile court with domestic violence. His mother, Lori, had called police and told them her son slapped her and called her a vulgar name. She had been trying to intervene in a fight between Coon and his twin sister, The Plain Dealer reported.
He was also suspended from school last year for attempting to hurt a student, the newspaper said.
"He used to cuss all the teachers out," said Henderson, 14.
Coon, who was white, stood out in the predominantly black school for dressing in a goth style, wearing a black trench coat, black boots, a dog collar and chains, she said.
Henderson, who is black, she said she didn't believe race played a role in the shootings.
"He's crazy. He threatened to blow up our school. He threatened to stab everybody," said Doneisha LeVert, 14. "We didn't think nothing of it."
People at Coon's home late Wednesday declined to comment.
All classes in the city school district were canceled Thursday, and school officials said counseling would be available for students at recreation centers throughout Cleveland.
Witnesses said the shooter moved through SuccessTech, a converted downtown office building, working his way up through the first two floors of administrative offices to the third floor of classrooms. He was wearing a Manson shirt, black jeans and black-painted finger nails, police said.
Charles Blackwell, president of SuccessTech's student-parent organization, said he did not know how Coon got into the building.
Blackwell said there was a security guard on the first floor, but that the position of another guard on the third floor had been eliminated.
The first person shot, 14-year-old Michael Peek, had punched Coon in the face right before the shootings began, student Rasheem Smith said.
Coon "came out of the bathroom and bumped Mike and he (Mike) punched him in his face. Mike started walking. He shot Mike in the side," said Smith, 15.
Darnell Rodgers, 18, was walking up to another floor when the stairway suddenly became flooded with students. "They were screaming, and they were saying, `Oh my God! Oh my God!' I knew something was wrong, but thought that it was probably just a fight, so I just kept going," Rodgers said.
He realized he had been shot when he felt his arm burning.
Rodgers was released from a hospital after treatment for a graze wound to his right elbow. He told NBC's "Today" on Thursday that he didn't believe he was targeted and that the shooter didn't speak as he fired.
"He just fired the gun," Rodgers said. "He didn't say anything."
The other student shot was taken to a children's hospital, which would not release the student's condition.
Michael Grassie, a 42-year-old history teacher, was hospitalized in fair condition late Wednesday after about 90 minutes of surgery. Without naming Grassie, emergency room physician Thomas Collins told "Today" that the teacher who underwent surgery had sustained "some pretty significant injuries" to his spleen and pancreas, "but he's a very tough man."
SuccessTech Academy, with about 240 students, is an alternative high school in the public school district that stresses technology and entrepreneurship.
Associated Press writers James Hannah, Terry Kinney, M.R. Kropko, John Seewer and Thomas J. Sheeran and Andrew Welsh-Huggins contributed to this report.
First, How did a A G-d hating white, goth freak named "Coon" even survive an asswhipping at an 90%+ black school?
Secondly, why on earth do publik skoolz let kids even show off like this? He had documented proof that this cretin was defective and violent. Special schools like this usually have a uniform policy IOT not let kids like this show off and act out.
Third: parents concerned about guns getting into the school? Come on! They should be concerned on why this nutcase wasn't on a thorizine drip or in a mental institution!
Lastly, Home schoolers...unite! Oh, and arm the teachers!
PS: Glad this defective product was returned to manufacturer w/o costing taxpayer money. Prayers to the perforated.
In the post-Columbine world, that's pretty amazing. Global Warming? Yes, I am personally threatened by it. The crazy kid sitting next to me saying he's going to kill me? This guy in the black trenchcoat? Why should I worry about that?
Columbine all over again. No one within the idiotic educational bureaucracy had the guts to say anything, nor did anyone in a position of authority stand up and say “This kid is a danger and does not belong in our school.”
This is the price we pay for political correctness and not wanting to “offend” anyone.
I could not image staying sane after such a thing happening to my son, and I do not understand what part they played as parents, or what they perceived in the build up to all of this.
This is the price we pay for political correctness and not wanting to “offend” anyone.
POST OF THE DAY! Good job! Couldn't have said it better (w/o dripping sarcasm and inuendo) myself!
Bone crushingly stupid and a traditional product of the American Public Schools.
“We didn’t think nothing of it.”
I can answer you question about how this weird white kid managed to survive in the mostly black schoool.Thats because there is a saying in black culture that”you don’t mess with crazy people” and the kids saw him as someone who “just ain’t right”and left him alone.
There is a school in my town that is mostly black with a few Latinos and Asians and a sprinkling of about forty white kids.Those white kids are divided into two groups-the wiggers who try to emulate black styles and the second group are those artsy quirky types who do the alternative-hip posing.
The black kids don’t mess with the white kids.They are way too busy getting into drama with EACH OTHER!
They should put Marilyn Manson on suicide watch. He has said that he was tormented after Columbine and after the VT massacre, he kept waiting to be blamed for that too.
Dont be clowning on homegirl cuz her grammar ain’t right,Ya feel me?
Seriously,grammar is just not taught anymore in many school districts.The only criteria is how deeply you emote on an essay about”how I feel”about this or that.
One thing about my black friends is that they love Jesus. Best experience in my life was going to a black church with my buddy, Kevin. It was a real "Blues Brother's" moment.
When the Goth-cretin said to a bunch of Christians that he hated G-d and worshiped a has been niche entertainer, I can see why the kid got in a fight and suspended.
This guy also had a website on myspace.com warning about this. He was a bomb waiting to go off. Public schools had better start acting on this. This kid should have been removed.
How did he get into the school with gun when they HAVE metal detectors?
WAY too complicated...just blame the GUNS! Ahh, isn't that eeeeeeasier!
( /horrible, nasty sarcasm)
Marilyn Manson claims to be a conservative guy. When interviewed he states he dresses up and acts nuts for entertainment. Well, maybe he’ll FINALLY SEE that he is NOT healthy entertainment and clean up his sorry act.
The first report I ‘heard’ via the radio about this was a reporter stating ‘the kid just snapped’.
As the article shows, that simply wasn’t the case at all. This young man had several years worth of stuff indicating something like this could occur.
Marilyn Manson is not pleased with this. He is mostly misunderstood, but 14 year olds have no business even trying to understand his art.
I wonder if "Mike" is going to punch anyone else who bumps into him?
Funny you mention the church and Jesus issue.I was almost 25 years old before I ever set foot in a church and it was at a black Holiness Church in Athens,Georgia.I was totally blown away by the energy and the dynamic music.I could really”feel God”in that place.
That Goth kid was going through that mock atheist phase many teens find cool and rebellious.I did myself.Yet deep in the back of my mind and in my heart I always knew God had my back.As He still does today.
i saw an interview with manson very early in his career. he was asked how he got into music.
he said, basically, "i used to interview musicians for a local paper. i saw the girls, the partying, the booze and i wanted it to. these guys had no talent and were getting chicks. i thought i could do that too."
it's always about the ladies. especially for musicians. just ask any high school kid why he joins a band.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.