Orlando Deshawn Harris identified as St Louis H.S gunman who shot dead teacher, Jean Kirk Kuczka and teen student, Alexandra ‘Alex’ Bell at Central VPA high school. Had mental issues. Facebook wall plastered with guns and weapons and cash.
The St. Louis gunman who shot dead a teacher and female student before being shot dead by responding police has been identified as 19 year old former school student, Orlando Harris.
The gunman also going by Deshawn Harris was dressed entirely in black when he allegedly opened fire at the performing arts school on Monday morning, shooting dead 61 year old female teacher, Jean Kirk Kuczka and a 16-year-old female student named Alexandra ‘Alex’ Bell. Six others were also injured, either by shrapnel, gunfire or cardiac arrest.
The gunman who had previously been identified as white and 20 years old, but now revealed to be a black teen, burst into the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School shortly after 9am on Monday and reportedly screamed: ‘You’re all going to die’.
He was shot dead by police inside the school.
Seven guards were inside the building at the time, but Michael Slack, commissioner of St. Louis police, refused to say at a Monday night press conference how he got inside. Slack said he did not want ‘to give a blueprint’ to other would-be gunmen.
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Harris, 19, was named in a press conference by St. Louis police. He graduated from the school in 2021 and had no criminal history, they said.
Of note, the gunman did have a history of mental health issues, officials said. Orlando Deshawn Harris was a Black male, according to police.
Posted the teen on September 2020 on Facebook: DMONEYGANG I be so down sometimes I be feel like everybody talk can’t understand what I go through In life I always been by myself left out and everything on my other people played like they didn’t know me I always wanted to get to know y’all when I was in school had them in the same grade is me I been fucked up all my life just can’t let this shit go.
Posted Harris in another post, in August 27 2020, ‘I neeed a raw ass girl to be my girlfriend like I want a Bougie girlfriend somebody ? DMONEYGANG.’
Wrote Harris only a few days earlier on August 22: ‘DMONEYGANG neeed a raw ass girl to be my Girlfriend application.’
Lieutenant Colonel Steve Sack, Commanding Officer for the Division of Criminal Investigation, said that as students were running out of the building, several told police officers that the suspect was inside and had a ‘long gun’ (images on Deshawn Harris Facebook page revealed the troubled teen with a long gun as well as handgun).
‘As kids were fleeing out of the building, they talked to some of the kids who told them that there was a shooter armed with a long gun,’ Sack said during a press conference.
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Were teacher and student specifically targeted?
‘The gun laws in St. Louis are very broad,’ said Slack. ‘If someone walks down the street with a rifle, if we have no cause we can’t go and talk to them. And that’s one of the greatest challenges we face.’
‘I think somebody got shot. We saw blood on the floor.’
The officers then entered the school, located the shooter, and fatally shot the suspect, Slack told reporters.
‘There was an exchange of gunfire’ after the officers had located the suspect,’ he said.
The official said he did not know how the suspect got in.
‘The doors were locked’ said Sack.
Additionally, one district officials said that there were seven security officers inside the building before police arrived at the scene.
It remained unclear if Orlando Deshawn Harris specifically targeted his two fatal victims in a possible revenge shooting and if so, why? Or whether the teen had designs on the teen female victim, Alex Bell, 15, who may rebuffed previous advances, in light of social media postings exclaiming the former student’s desire for female company…
