“He looked at me, he pointed the gun at me,†said Ray Parks, second from right, a dance teacher who came face to face with the gunman. Parks was prayed over by student Messiah Miller, 16, center, a junior at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, and others outside the school where a shooting took place on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022, in the Southwest Garden neighborhood.
Robert Cohen, Post-Dispatch
A side entry door, shot out at the bottom, is guarded by ºüÀêÊÓƵ police following a school shooting on the shared campus of Central Visual and Performing Arts High School and Collegiate School of Medicine & Bioscience.
Robert Cohen, Post-Dispatch
People embrace in the parking lot of Schnucks on Arsenal after evacuating after a shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in ºüÀêÊÓƵ on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022.
Jordan Opp, Post-Dispatch
High school students console one another in the parking lot of Schnucks on Arsenal, after fleeing Central Visual and Performing Arts High School after a shooting at the school on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022.
David Carson, Post-Dispatch
Jean Kuczka
A man brings flowers to Central Visual & Performing Arts High School following a shooting on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 at Kingshighway and Arsenal Street. A teacher, student and the suspected shooter were killed in the morning attack. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
A friend of Alexzandria Bell, the student killed in a school shooting at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School, leaves the school grounds on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 in the Southwest Garden neighborhood. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
ºüÀêÊÓƵ Public Schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams steps away after speaking at a news conference outside Central Visual & Performing Arts High School following a school shooting on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022, in the Southwest Garden neighborhood.
Robert Cohen, Post-Dispatch
ºüÀêÊÓƵ Mayor Tishaura O. Jones hugs U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-ºüÀêÊÓƵ, before a news conference outside Central Visual and Performing Arts High School following a school shooting on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022, in the Southwest Garden neighborhood.
Robert Cohen photos, Post-Dispatch
Kevin Montes and Natalia Serra listen as speakers address the crowd during a vigil in Tower Grove Park for the victims of the school shooting at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School in ºüÀêÊÓƵ on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. They live about 100 yards away from the school. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
David Carson
Marie Crane, 24, holds a candle during a vigil in Tower Grove Park for the victims of the school shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in ºüÀêÊÓƵ on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. "It's tragic. I just wanted to be with the community and grieve," said Crane, who lives a few block from the school. Several hundred people attended the vigil.Â
ST. LOUIS — A gunman entered a south ºüÀêÊÓƵ high school on Monday with a “long gun†and multiple high-capacity magazines, shooting a teenage girl and a health teacher to death and injuring several others before police shot and killed him, authorities said.
Police identified the suspect late Monday as Orlando Harris, 19, a graduate last year of the school, Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, at Arsenal Street and South Kingshighway near Tower Grove Park.
One survivor heard the shooter say he was “tired of everybody†in the school.
Police said the damage could have been far worse. The shooter’s gun jammed at one point, one student said, giving kids time to escape. And police found more than a dozen 30-round magazines on him.
Authorities did not release the names of the woman and the teenage girl who died. But relatives of the woman identified her to the Post-Dispatch as 61-year-old Jean Kuczka, who taught health and physical education. Kuczka, a mother of five, lived in the Dittmer area of Jefferson County.
Four other students were shot and injured — two in the leg, one in the arm, and one in the hands and jaw. Two more students suffered abrasions, and a girl fractured her ankle.
Interim ºüÀêÊÓƵ police Commissioner Michael Sack said Monday evening that he was “extremely proud†of the police response. The call for an active shooter came in at 9:11 a.m., and the shooter was shot 14 minutes later on the school’s third floor. He said a security officer saw the man trying to enter the building, and police were alerted.
Several parents and ºüÀêÊÓƵ Mayor Tishaura O. Jones also commended the police response.
“This could have been much worse,†Sack said.
Sack refused to say how the gunman got into the building but said all doors were locked. The building has metal detectors and seven security officers.
Sack said the gunman had no criminal history.
There are two magnet high schools on the campus — Central Visual and Performing Arts, with about 400 students, and Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience, with about 300 students.
David Williams, a math teacher at the school, said the school principal came over the loudspeaker around 9 a.m. and said the code phrase that indicates a shooter in the building. Williams heard multiple shots outside his classroom, and one of the windows on the classroom door was shot out. He then heard a man say, “You are all going to (expletive) die.â€
Police haven’t said how many shots were fired inside the school.
Elijah Pohlman, a 15-year-old sophomore, said it was chaos when the code came over the loudspeaker. He said he texted his parents that he loved them, then heard four gunshots and took off running. He said he almost ran into a body in the hallway on his way out.
“I don’t even know how to deal with it,†he said later. “I’m scared.â€
Raymond J. Parks, a dance teacher at the school, said he was about to teach a ballet class when he saw the shooter wearing all black with a long gun out of the corner of his eye. Parks said the man pointed the gun at him but did not fire for some reason.
Taniya Gholston, 16, was in the dance class when the shooting started.
“He said like, ‘I’m tired of this damn school,’ and, ‘I’m tired of everybody in this damn school,’†she said.
Ranaiyah Cole was in the dance class too, stretching, when she heard a gunshot.
“We hid in a corner behind a mat,†said Ranaiyah, 16.
Once the gunman ran off, Ranaiyah and her classmates darted out of the school and to a vacant Walgreens building.
Nylah Jones, a ninth grader at the school, said she was in math class when the shooter fired into the room from the hallway but could not get into the classroom. Students piled into the corner of the room and tried not to move as the shooter banged on the door, she said.
Ryane Owens, 18, a senior at CVPA, said students “thought it was a drill at first. Then we heard noises.â€
“Once you heard the boom,†said teacher Michael De Filippo, “all the chuckling and laughing in the back of the room stopped.â€
Taniya Lumpkin was in speech and debate class at the time. She said a staff member told them to close and lock the door as they do for an intruder drill, but they “didn’t know if it was real or not.â€
“Next thing you know, we just heard gunshots,†Taniya said. First single shots rang out, then multiple, then single again, she said.
Ja’miah Hampton, 16, was in vocal class on the fourth floor of the building when she heard gunshots on the third floor.
“I heard one big one, and then there were so many I stopped counting,†she said. “I’m confused why people are so cruel.â€
By 9:30 a.m., the area around the school was blocked off by police, ambulances and a SWAT van. Students and staff streamed from the buildings with hands in the air, filing up Hereford Street toward the Schnucks grocery store on Arsenal, where hundreds of evacuees gathered.
There, students and their parents reconnected, hugging and crying.
One boy was consoling his mother.
“I’m glad it’s over. My friends are alive. It’s OK, Mom. It’s OK, I’m here,†he said.
Earlier Monday, Mayor Jones and Rep. Cori Bush spoke at the first news conference of the day.
“It’s so unfair,†Jones said, choking up. “I’m heartbroken for these families. Our children shouldn’t have to experience this.â€
Bush said it is vital to get help if you need it in the shooting’s aftermath: “If you don’t know who to talk to, you can call our office,†she said. “It’s OK to not be OK.â€
In Washington, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre addressed the shooting with reporters: “In the wake of Newtown, Parkland, Buffalo, Uvalde and countless other shootings in communities across the country, we need additional action to stop the scourge of gun violence,†calling on the U.S. Senate to approve an assault weapons ban and take “other commonsense actions.â€
ºüÀêÊÓƵ Public Schools announced late Monday evening that classes will be canceled Tuesday at Central Visual and Performing Arts and Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience high schools in the wake of Monday’s shooting.
CVPA was Southwest High School for decades until 1992.
Steph Kukuljan and Katie Kull of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this story.
Watch now: School shooting at CVPA High School in ºüÀêÊÓƵ
Photos: School Shooting at CVPA High School in ºüÀêÊÓƵ
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Behavioral Health Response is offering mental health support free of charge. Text BHEARD to 31658, call 988 or 314-469-6644. Youth can call a specific helpline at 314-819-8802. More options are at
Katie Kull, one of a team of reporters and photographers who covered the shooting and the aftermath, talk about the day-of work, and how she r…
“He looked at me, he pointed the gun at me,†said Ray Parks, second from right, a dance teacher who came face to face with the gunman. Parks was prayed over by student Messiah Miller, 16, center, a junior at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, and others outside the school where a shooting took place on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022, in the Southwest Garden neighborhood.
A side entry door, shot out at the bottom, is guarded by ºüÀêÊÓƵ police following a school shooting on the shared campus of Central Visual and Performing Arts High School and Collegiate School of Medicine & Bioscience.
People embrace in the parking lot of Schnucks on Arsenal after evacuating after a shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in ºüÀêÊÓƵ on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022.
High school students console one another in the parking lot of Schnucks on Arsenal, after fleeing Central Visual and Performing Arts High School after a shooting at the school on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022.
A man brings flowers to Central Visual & Performing Arts High School following a shooting on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 at Kingshighway and Arsenal Street. A teacher, student and the suspected shooter were killed in the morning attack. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
A friend of Alexzandria Bell, the student killed in a school shooting at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School, leaves the school grounds on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 in the Southwest Garden neighborhood. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
ºüÀêÊÓƵ Public Schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams steps away after speaking at a news conference outside Central Visual & Performing Arts High School following a school shooting on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022, in the Southwest Garden neighborhood.
ºüÀêÊÓƵ Mayor Tishaura O. Jones hugs U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-ºüÀêÊÓƵ, before a news conference outside Central Visual and Performing Arts High School following a school shooting on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022, in the Southwest Garden neighborhood.
Kevin Montes and Natalia Serra listen as speakers address the crowd during a vigil in Tower Grove Park for the victims of the school shooting at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School in ºüÀêÊÓƵ on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. They live about 100 yards away from the school. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
Marie Crane, 24, holds a candle during a vigil in Tower Grove Park for the victims of the school shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in ºüÀêÊÓƵ on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. "It's tragic. I just wanted to be with the community and grieve," said Crane, who lives a few block from the school. Several hundred people attended the vigil.Â