Kan. School Resource Officer, Administrator Wounded in Shooting

By Robert A. Cronkleton, Laura Bauer, Sarah Ritter and Kaitlin Washburn

Source The Kansas City Star

A school administrator and resource officer were injured when shots were fired at Olathe East High School, police said on Twitter.

"CRITICAL INCIDENT: Olathe East High School. School Resource Officer Shot and injured, Administrator Shot and injured," police said in the post on Twitter. "Occurred in Office Area. Suspect in custody. Stand by on reunification area. No active threat at this time."

The injured school resource officer reported that three people had been shot and injured: himself, an assistant school principal and the suspect, who is a student and was shot in the abdomen, according to radio traffic captured by Broadcastify.com.

Both the injured school administrator and the school resource officer are expected to survive, Olathe police spokesman Sgt. Joel Yeldell said in a briefing Friday.

Shortly before 2 p.m., Overland Park Regional Hospital said they were treating the three men who had been shot. One was in critical condition, one was in critical but stable condition and the third was stable.

The high school, located at 14545 W 127th St., is one of five high schools in the Olathe School District. The school has roughly 2,000 students. The district, which is in the suburbs of Kansas City, has fewer than 30,000 students enrolled.

Shortly after the shooting, Olathe Superintendent Brent Yeager sent a message to families of Olathe East that said:

"I want to make you aware of a situation that is currently happening. Olathe East is currently under lock down due to an active shooting situation on campus. Please know that law enforcement is on site and the building is secured. Olathe East and surrounding school buildings have been secured."

Parents and families were directed to reunite with their children at California Trail Middle School at 13775 W. 133rd Street, the school district announced.

Bus riders will come home on buses from the Pioneer Trail Middle School, just a few blocks from the high school campus, and student drivers will be released in groups and escorted to vehicles to drive themselves home.

Police previously directed parents and guardians to Family Video or Frontier Park near the campus and, within minutes of the announcement, dozens of parents began flooding those locations.

Roads leading to the school were blocked by several police agencies from the metro.

Parent Ryan Forshee said he rushed to the school from his job at Catholic Charities after his daughter reached out to his wife.

"She texted, 'don't freak out but we're in lockdown in Advisory.' She said there had been a shooting and that an administrator had been shot as well as an SRO officer."

He said he thought, "I've got to get to my kid. I have to make sure my kid is safe."

He came to the back end of the school, as other parents did, and approached two police officers at Alden Street and 128th Terrace. The officer told him that parents would soon be able to pick up their children at Family Video nearby.

The officer told Forshee the shooting was an "isolated incident" and heard officers say that a suspect was in custody.

Special agents with the Kansas City office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had responded to the shooting and were providing assistance with the investigation into the shooting.

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