Student gunman in Ohio warned of attack [Asa Coon, 14, hated God, loved Marilyn Manson]

YAHOO! News ^ | 11 OCT 07 | dcbryan1

[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.

[sasafras]

I know this will be politicall incorrect - but this kid was probably teased and abused by the blacks. He had no where to turn because they could be racist to him all they want but he couldnt probably say a damn thing back to them. Its sad that this is what our society has come to - we have removed God, discipline, fathers and our constitution. We have replaced it with sexual deviancy, sinful pride about ones race, and idolotry. I am very sure that this poor kid, who probably did not have a father, felt like he had nowhere to turn, no one to listen to him. I went to a school which was predominantly black - if one wants to experience true racism and hate try being a white kid in an all black school.

[sasafras]

“All it takes is ONE time and then the rest will leave you the hell alone.”

Your living in lala land - being a white kid in an all black school is just asking to get your ass kicked every day. Racism is alive and well in the black community - it is not only encouraged but praised by its leaders. Look up the word diversity and see who it excludes.

[VxH]

[You have to wonder how often that occurred.]

There was a time when aggression was constructively channeled onto the playing field.

The Utopian expectation that The State(tm) can magically or pharmaceutically alter 3.5 billion years worth of human Nature is simply not realistic.

Mark Twain said: “Courage is mastery of fear; not absence of fear”.

Aggression, like fear, is an instinct that must be mastered. It can not be legislated or medicated out of existence. It certainly can not be mastered by pretending it does not exist.

[napscoordinator]

Homeschooler????

He was homeschooled? Yea that is the type of kids I want homeschooled? Homeschool is not good for social skills as this proves!!!!

[Dumb_Ox]

In the post-Columbine world, that's pretty amazing.

That girl was only 7 when Columbine happened.

[Riverman94610]

I’m from California and work in schools in the hood every day and that has not been my experience.
Not saying that a kid who is white in a minority school won’t face some problems.He or she will.The question is how will they handle the problem?Many whites and Asians who are deemed”cool”will be accepted and not get messed with.
The ones who are not cool?Yes,they will get some heat.Yet they would get the same heat in same race schools as well.
Teenagers can be little fascists when it comes to confromity.THAT sad reality transcends race.

[VxH]

[he was asking for something bad to happen.]

The shooter was in an environment full of predators and the coping strategy he chose in response to the environment was not successful. 

Maybe it would have been smarter if he had learned to be small, camouflage himself, and hide instead of engaging in behavior that explicitly drew more attention and guaranteed an escalation of conflict.

The question is, where did the shooter learn how to respond to his environment?  What did Marilyn Manson teach him?

[SuziQ]

What’s sad is that this disturbed kid decided to try to take some others with him. Thank God no one else died.

[absolootezer0]

its not taught because the teachers don’t understand it any more. also, because the keepers of the dictionaries are too willing to alter the language to accomodate poor grammar.

[gracesdad]

“...being a white kid in an all black school is just asking to get your ass kicked every day. “

Are you speaking from personal experience or just making things up?

[paul51]

Wonder where the firearms came from. Can’t find any mention in the article

[Drew68]

Well, maybe he’ll FINALLY SEE that he is NOT healthy entertainment and clean up his sorry act.

Marilyn Manson hasn't been relevant to young people since 1997. His heyday as a popular artist has long since ended.

[null and void]

Rilly? My blond and blue daughter didn’t have the slightest problem in her minority majority high school.

[sasafras]

“Rilly? My blond and blue daughter didn’t have the slightest problem in her minority majority high school.”

Rilly???? you mean Really? anyway good for her. Whats your point? Why dont you give some more details if your trying to claim that your experience is the rule and not the exception.

[sasafras]

Personal experience, care to disagree?

[null and void]

I meant

On your original post (#42) you said:

Your living in lala land - being a white kid in an all black school is just asking to get your ass kicked every day. Racism is alive and well in the black community - it is not only encouraged but praised by its leaders. Look up the word diversity and see who it excludes.

Did you mean "You're living in lala land"?

Anyway, you asked

Whats your point?

Darling daughter was the just about the whitest person in her HS, if not THE whitest. She went to that school for four years without any problems.

Why dont you give some more details

What would suffice? Do you need a day-by-day diary for all four school years?

if your trying to claim that your experience is the rule and not the exception.

I'm not. (Did you mean "if you're trying to claim"?).

I will admit that it did sound to me like you were trying to claim just the opposite: being a white kid in an all black school is just asking to get your ass kicked every day.

Why don't you give some more details if you're trying to claim that is the rule and not the exception? (Note that the word don't has an apostrophe)

[festus]

"He used to cuss all the teachers out," said Henderson, 14.

See right here is the problem.

A kid doing that needs to be knocked sensless until he comes around with his hat in his hand. And says yessir and yesmaam.

Let this stuff go unchecked and you get what you see here.

[jack_napier]

What did Marilyn Manson teach him?

My guess would be nothing. He's just a weird, pasty, androgynous person. Kids who are socially isolated and feel 'cornered' will resort to violence all on their own. But then again, I tend to believe man's natural state is depravity...

[PLMerite]

“My blond and blue daughter didn’t have the slightest problem in her minority majority high school.”

Just out of curiosity, who did she date?

[null and void]

A very dark skinned 1st generation Filipino-American. Nice kid, but it was very annoying trying to get a good picture of them together. Either she was washed out, or he was a dark blotch.