The suspect is a 15-year-old student who was apprehended at the scene.
At least two students were killed and 17 others injured in a shooting at a high school in rural Kentucky on Tuesday morning, authorities confirmed.
The suspected shooter is a 15-year-old male student at Marshall County High School and was apprehended at the scene. He will be charged with murder. Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin said there is no reason to suspect anyone else in an act of violence that rocked the small town of Benton.
The students killed were also 15. A girl died at the school, while a boy died after being taken to a hospital. Officials are not releasing the identities of the victims or the suspect at this time, nor are they discussing a potential motive for the shooting.
“This is a wound that is going to take a long time to heal,” Bevin said.
Fourteen people, including the two killed, were wounded in the gunfire, which began just before 9 a.m. ET as the suspect entered the school with a handgun and began shooting. First responders were there in under 10 minutes.
Five victims were flown to Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center, which is the closest level one trauma center to the school at around 120 miles away.
Students poured out of the school seeking safety, said Mitchell Garland, who rushed outside of his business when he heard about the shooting.
“They was running and crying and screaming,” he told The Associated Press. “They was just kids running down the highway. They were trying to get out of there.”
Cars packed roads near the school as parents searched for their children.
“Everyone is just scared. Just terrified for their kids,” said Garland, whose 16-year-old son jumped into someone’s car to escape the school. “We’re a small town and we know a lot of the kids.”
There is currently no information on the suspect, the motive of the shooting or the age of the person killed. Authorities have scheduled a briefing for 12 p.m. CT.
Bevin released a full statement late in the morning, expressing grief and warning people not to speculate on the circumstances of the shooting.
“This is a tremendous tragedy and speaks to the heartbreak present in our communities,” he said. “It is unbelievable that this would happen in small, close-knit community like Marshall County. As there is still much unknown, I encourage people to love on each other at this time. Do not speculate, but come alongside each other in support and allow the facts to come out.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, spoke about the shooting in remarks on the Senate floor.
“I know I speak for communities across my home state in sending prayers of comfort and healing to students, faculty and everyone affected by this violence,” he said.
Marshall County High School is about 30 minutes from Heath High School in Paducah, Ky., where a 1997 mass shooting killed three and injured five. Michael Carneal, then 14, opened fire there about two years before the fatal attack at Columbine High School in Colorado, ushering in an era when mass school shootings have become much more common.
Meanwhile, in the small North Texas town of Italy, a 15-year-old girl was recovering Tuesday after police said she was shot by a 16-year-old classmate in her high school cafeteria on Monday, sending dozens of students scrambling for safety.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
