GUNMAN FATALLY SHOT ON CAMPUS.Byline: Staff and Wire reports A gun-wielding teen who took a 17-year-old girl hostage hostage, person held by another as a guarantee that certain actions or promises will or will not be carried out. During periods of internal turmoil, insurgents often seize hostages; recent examples include seizures of Americans and other foreigners by militants in on a high school campus, sending students scrambling See scramble. for cover, was shot and killed by a SWAT team member Wednesday, police said. Neither the girl nor anyone else at 2,500-student Hueneme High School Hueneme High School, or HHS as it is more often referred to, is a public four-year high school serving grades 9-12 in Oxnard, California. The school was founded in 1959 and sits in the heart of South Oxnard. was hurt. Police were unsure what prompted the attack but suspect the 17-year-old boy might have wanted officers to shoot him, a ``suicide by cop Suicide-by-cop is a suicide method in which someone deliberately acts in a threatening way towards a law enforcement officer, with the goal of provoking a lethal response, such as being shot to death. ,'' police Cmdr. Tom Chronister said at a news conference Wednesday night. He declined to elaborate. The youth, whose identity was not immediately known, apparently wasn't a student at the school and didn't know the girl, whose identity was not released, police said. A SWAT officer killed the gunman with a single shot only five minutes after police arrived on the campus shortly before 1 p.m. They were responding to a 911 call. ``It was clearly a situation where the officer felt the victim's life and possibly others were in jeopardy jeopardy, in law, condition of a person charged with a crime and thus in danger of punishment. At common law a defendant could be exposed to jeopardy for the same offense only once; exposing a person twice is known as double jeopardy. ,'' Chronister said. The commotion sent students on their lunchtime break running for safety. Many went to a nearby middle school. ``I seen a guy, he had a gun and he was holding the gun to this chick's head,'' student Michael Garcia said. The intruder An attacker that gains, or tries to gain, unauthorized access to a system. See attacker, intrusion and IDS. waved a gun at students and said: ``Back away, back away,'' he added. Tenth-grader Devon Devon (dĕv`ən), county (1991 pop. 1,008,300), 2,591 sq mi (6,711 sq km), SW England. The county town is Exeter. Devon is bounded on the N by the Bristol Channel, on the S by the English Channel, and on the W by Cornwall. Bishop said the gunman had his arm around the girl's head with the weapon at her neck, and that the girl was scared and crying. ``I ran. I just got my backpack and ran. It wasn't cool at all,'' Bishop said. School officials said the youth had been at the school earlier in the morning and was escorted off the campus. Just before grabbing the girl, he got into a dispute with another student whose friend was picking her up outside the school. He fired several shots as their car drove away but they were not hurt, Chronister said. The gunman then took his hostage in an open quadrangle quadrangle Rectangular open space completely or partially enclosed by buildings of an academic or civic character. The grounds of a quadrangle are often grassy or landscaped. of the school. An on-campus police officer ordered him to drop the gun, Chronister said, but the youth replied that he was carrying a bomb and threatened to use it. The police Special Weapons and Tactics team arrived minutes later. The officer who killed the gunman was placed on paid leave pending an investigation. The Ventura County District Attorney's Office also will investigate, Chronister said. |
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