'Mr Wasner's the man!': Guidance counselor who tackled gunman, 15, as he began Baltimore school cafeteria shooting spree hailed a hero

Guidance counselor Jesse Wasmer was first to confront gunman after he had fired weapon in school cafeteria



Male student was shot in the back at random and is in critical condition

The alleged shooter, 15-year-old Robert Gladden Jr, has been charged with first degree attempted murder and first degree assault

Gladden Jr., also a student at Perry Hall High School, is being charged as an adult



Parents have said that there may have been a threat against the school on Facebook

The threat reportedly read: 'First Day of School, Last Day of Life'

Hero: Jesse Wasmer, who graduated from Perry Hall High School, is drawling praise from the community for subduing the gunman

A 15-year-old boy who allegedly shot and critically wounded a fellow student on the first day of classes at a Baltimore high school has been charged with first-degree attempted murder, said police.

Robert Gladden Jr. is being charged as an adult and also faces a first-degree assault charge stemming from Monday's shooting, according to Baltimore County Police Department spokeswoman Susan Hunt.



Meanwhile, students and parents in the Maryland community are crediting a high school guidance counselor with saving the school after he heroically restrained the gunman before he could fire any fatal shots.

Police said that Gladden, a student at Perry Hall High School in Baltimore County, walked into the cafeteria on Monday morning with what looked like a shotgun and fired two shots, one of which hit another student.

But before the teen could shoot again, he was taken down by guidance counselor Jesse Wasmer, who likely prevented a bloodbath with his quick thinking.

Baltimore County Police Chief James Johnson said the gunman fired once before he was grabbed by Wasmer, and then another shot went off as he struggled with Wasmer and other teachers.

Charged: Robert Gladden, who allegedly shot and critically wounded a fellow student on the first day of classes at a Baltimore high school has been charged with first-degree attempted murder

Jordan Coates, a 17-year-old student who was in the cafeteria at the time of the shooting, said the student used a shotgun.

Coates said he watched teachers, including Wasmer, pin the shooter against a vending machine.

'My back was to the door. I heard a pop and thought it was a bag because people do that, but then I heard another one,' Coates told The Associated Press.

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Giving thanks: Later on Monday, Twitter erupted with tributes and messages of thanks for the guidance counselor

'And I turned around and a teacher had a kid pinned up against the vending machine, and I saw the barrel, and another shot goes off and people just start running.'

Coates added that Wasmer 'grabbed the gun from the kid and got him' until other teachers came over.

Wasmer, 31, a graduate of Perry Hall who also coaches lacrosse, was married over the summer.

Later on Monday, Twitter erupted with tributes and messages of thanks for the guidance counselor.

One tweet read: 'Mr Wasmer is the man!!!! Never take him for granted bcuz (sic) he risked his life for over 2,000 of us.'

Another said: 'If Wasmer wasn't there, imagine what would have happened. Thank God for him.'

Shooting: A 17-year-old male student was shot in the back by another student at Perry Hall High School in Baltimore on Monday morning; it was the students' first day back

A Facebook page called 'Thanks Mr Wasmer' has nearly 10,000 'likes' and is full of messages of support and thanks for the heroic guidance counselor.



Schools Superintendent Dallas Dance said: 'We have some heroic and brave faculty members. They responded very quickly to minimize damage.'

Seth Warner, a youth pastor at the Faith Fellowship Church across from the high school who graduated in 1999 with Wasmer, said he was not surprised to hear that the guidance counselor had intervened. He described Wasmer as 'not big, but built.'

Savior: Wasmer, pictured with his wife Elizabeth, grabbed the gun from the student and held him until other teachers came over

'I knew that if anyone could take him down, it would be Jesse,' Warner said.

Kelsey Long, a junior at Perry Hall who was in the cafeteria, said she also thought the first gunshot was someone popping a bag.

'But then we heard it again and again and everyone started screaming and ran out to the front of the school,' Long told The Associated Press in a Twitter message.

Investigators do not believe the victim, a 17-year-old male, was targeted by the shooter.

Some students, who witnessed the chaos, said that there was a scuffle right before the shooting.

'I heard two large bangs and I saw people running and it was chaos and everybody ran outside, and the principal told us to stay in the grass area and away from the cafeteria,' a student told WJZ.

Miranda Wienecke, a junior, told the Baltimore Sun that she saw the suspect with a 'huge black thing' that she suddenly realised was a gun.



'I saw people getting under the table,' Wienecke said.'Then I saw people running. We heard this huge boom, then there was another one, everything happened very fast.'

Parents have told WJZ that there may have been a threat on Facebook which referenced the school. It reportedly said, ‘First Day of School, Last Day of Life.’

Random attack: Officers believe that the shooter, who was also a student at Perry Hall High School, fired at random and struck the teen

Hunt said Gladden, who is being held without bail, is cooperating with authorities. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for September 7.



Gladden's father said his son was bullied.

A woman who was speaking from Gladden's home and said she was related to the father, gave the following statement on the family's behalf: 'We are horrified. We did not see this coming and our thoughts and prayers are with the victim and the victim's family.'

Facebook threat: Parents have said that there may have been a threat on Facebook which referenced the school. It reportedly said, 'First Day of School, Last Day of Life'

When asked about a motive for the shooting, the father indicated his son had been bullied. He gave no further details.

The victim remained in critical condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center on Tuesday morning. As the school reopened this morning, a brief prayer vigil was held for him.



Detectives were interviewing the suspected shooter Monday afternoon, Baltimore County police spokeswoman Elise Armacost said.

Investigators were also searching Gladden's home for an hour and a half yesterday and were seen carrying out some guns, reported the Baltimore Sun.

Distressed: Tracie Bradford consoles her daughter Leah, a student at Perry Hall High School who said she was in the school's cafeteria when a student was shot and critically wounded

Officers spent several hours searching the school and found no other weapons or suspicious materials, she said.

Although no one other than the 17-year-old was shot, several people suffered cuts and bruises in the ensuing melee, Armacost said.

The school was evacuated, and students were escorted to a nearby shopping center and middle school.

Perry Hall is a middle-class community along the Interstate 95 corridor, northeast of Baltimore city. The school is the largest in the county, with 2,200 students.

County Councilman David Marks, who lives next door to the school, said he had received dozens of phone calls and text messages from worried parents and residents.

Terrifying: The shooting happened in the school cafeteria shortly before 11 am; two teachers quickly tackled the shooter

'This is a very comfortable, very safe community, and it's an excellent high school,' said Marks, who graduated from Perry Hall. 'I think this is an aberration, but clearly one that is horrifying, particularly on the first day of school.'

Police planned to provide additional security when the school reopens on Tuesday, and stress counselors were called in to work with students, faculty and staff.

Television coverage showed scores of police cars surrounding the school and parked on neighborhood streets.

A group of officers with weapons drawn staked out a corner of the building, one of them lying prone on the ground and appearing to cover a particular area of the campus.



Hundreds of students streamed away from the school.

Cathy Le, 15, said students were panicking as they tried to find out what was happening.

Critical: The 17-year-old victim from Perry High School was flown to a hospital after being shot in the back, Baltimore County police said. He was in critical condition

They texted and called each other frantically as they were locked in their classrooms for more than an hour, she said.

At the scene, buses, emergency vehicles and parents in cars filled the roadway between the high school and the shopping center.



There were obvious signs of relief displayed as parents found their children.

Kristin Kraus, whose son James attends the school, described hearing about the shooting as 'absolute terror.'

However, Kraus said, 'within a couple of minutes he texted my husband that he was OK.'