The MAC 90 7.26 MM assault rifle used by a 13-year-old male student in a shooting this morning at Joplin Memorial Middle School appeared to have jammed after the first shot.
Joplin police Sgt. Curt Farmer said the gun was a semi-automatic assault rifle, and that it is legal to possess. Rifles altered to fire in automatic mode are illegal.
“It is my understanding that the gun did jam after the first shot had been fired,” Farmer said.
The student entered Memorial Middle School shortly before 7:45 this morning, wearing a full-length, black, military-type black trench coat, Farmer said. The boy was wearing a makeshift mask made out of a white T-shirt.
The student was confronted in a hallway by Assistant Superintendent Steve Doerr, who saw the boy pointing the rifle at another student. He attempted to intervene, and called 911.
Memorial Principal Steve Gilbreth then confronted the boy, persuading him to leave the building. Gilbreth followed the boy out, walking about 10 feet behind him.
Police arrested the student at Ninth and Wall streets, the old Joplin Public Library.
Inside a backpack he was carrying, Farmer said, police found a set of BDUs, or camouflage battle dress uniforms. Police also found notes on how to make a bomb.
Earlier today, the Springfield Bomb Squad established at command center at 521 S. Gray Ave. in Joplin. Police searched the home, as well as the third floor of the middle school. The results of those searches were not immediately known .
Tiffany Pendergraft, 12, a seventh-grader at Memorial Middle School was eating breakfast in the cafeteria when the school was locked down. “I was in the middle of breakfast,” she said. “They started saying we got to be quiet. I was just kind of wondering what was happening.”
She said she was “sort of” scared, but she and a friend also joked with each other morbidly about what the other would do if one was killed.
Molly Flowers, 12, a sixth-grader, said she also was eating breakfast when the school was locked down. “We all thought it was a drill until they started shutting the blinds and locking the doors,” Flowers said.
Joplin schools Superintendent Jim Simpson said it appeared as if the attack had been planned for some time, and that police were investigating whether others might be involved.
He said the district has a plan in place for potential incidents, and that the plan worked.
“It was close,” Simpson said.
There were 21 weapons incidents reported in Joplin schools in 2005, three times the state average.
Unlike Monday’s incident, most of those involved knives and martial arts weapons and not firearms, according to Joplin Superintendent Jim Simpson.
In three previous years, the number of weapons incidents reported in Joplin was at or below the state average, according to statistics reported by public schools and compiled by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Statewide, there were 815 incidents involving weapons in 2005, according to DESE. That is a ratio of .10 per every 100 students; in Joplin, the ratio was .30 per every 100 students, according to data reported in October of 2005.
A weapons is defined as any device or instrument capable of causing serious bodily injury. It does not include a knife with a blade of less than 2.5 inches.
For more on this story return to www.joplinglobe.com throughout the afternoon.
Local News
Rifle jammed after first shot, police say
- Local News
-
-
City wants to buy weather radios for those without
Phil Jones had been working on a construction project outside his house all day on May 22 and was unaware that a tornado watch had been issued. Once he was inside, though, his weather radio went off, and he learned that a warning had been issued.
-
Cold air headed this way
The Arctic front that passed over Missouri this morning will bring dangerously cold temperatures to the region tonight and Saturday.
-
Miami, Okla., man dies along I-44
A 27-year-old Miami, Okla., who appeared to be walking along I-44 in an attempt to get help after wrecking his car, is dead after being hit by a pickup truck.
-
Mo. presidential primary sets low mark in turnout
Just 8 percent of Missouri’s registered voters cast ballots in this week’s presidential primary.
-
Okla. court upholds man’s life sentence in deaths
An Oklahoma appeals court has upheld the life in prison sentences of a man convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for the shotgun slayings of two men at a Sperry residence.
-
Architects present preliminary JHS plans at community meeting
Reaction appeared mostly supportive Thursday night among the roughly 50 people who attended a community meeting at which architects presented their preliminary site plans for the future combined Joplin High School and Franklin Technology Center.
-
Confessed shooter testifies against co-defendants in Pittsburg murder case
Rickey Smith testified Thursday that as he came in the back door of Ryan Bailey’s home in Pittsburg with a 9 mm pistol in his hand, Bailey looked up from the couch in his living room.
-
School district’s proposed street-closing plan questioned
Plans to close some streets near the proposed Joplin High School drew questions, including a challenge from a former Joplin mayor, during a public hearing this week.
-
Mike Pound: Spirit of competition evident during double-overtime game
When I played basketball in high school, I played in several very close games.
Now, some people who may have known me in high school are probably laughing right now and saying, “What Mike meant to say is that when he was in high school, he came very close to playing in some games.” -
Neosho council approves new golf cart contract
The purchase of golf carts was back on the agenda this week for the Neosho City Council. City Attorney Steve Hays said there were errors in the financing terms that were part of a bid approved last month for the purchase of 55 gas-powered carts from E-Z-Go for $144,195, so the purchase of a new fleet was rebid.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Denver's Largest-Ever Drug Bust Nets Dozens
Marines: No Punishment for Nazi-like Flag
Vets Look to Translate Military Skills Into Jobs
Expert: Removing LA School's Staff 'Appropriate'
Raw Video: School Bus Burst Into Flames
LA School Reopens Amid Sex Abuse Scandal
$25B Settlement Reached Over Foreclosure Abuses
Pentagon: Allow Women Closer to Front Lines
Obama Gives Education Waivers to 10 States
Giffords Aide to Run for Her Seat
LA School in Sex Abuse Scandal Reopens
Winter Slamming North Asia, Parts of Europe
Syrian Forces Renew Bombardment of Homs
States, Banks Reach Foreclosure-abuse Settlement
Raw Video: Italy's Mount Etna Bursts Into Life
Greeks March; Angry Despite Debt Deal
Raw Video: U.S. Pullout Celebration
Raw Video: Annual Empire State Building Run-Up
Man Killed in Courthouse Shootout
Air Force Airlines: Leaders Get Polished Service
