A journalist who went to the scene of a deadly US school shooting discovered the 15-year-old alleged attacker was her son, it is claimed.

Two students were killed and 21 injured at the Marshall County High School in Benton, Kentucky.

The editor of the Marshall County Daily Online, Mary Garrison Minyard, had gone to the site following reports of gunshots, according to colleague Ann Beckett.

Ms Beckett told the Courier Journal she went to comfort the editor and take over the story.

Gabe Parker has been named as the boy who allegedly pulled out a handgun and opened fire before classes were due to begin on Tuesday.


His mother, Ms Garrison Minyard, and other members of his family have declined to comment, said the Courier Journal.

The motive for the shooting is not known.

Image: Two students were killed in the attack at Marshall County High School in Benton, Kentucky

Friends and others who know Parker, a pupil who played trombone in the school band, described him as a shy, red-headed "grandma's boy" who would go fishing with his grandparents.

Meanwhile, debates are raging in Kentucky and other states nationwide about how to prevent such shootings.

Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, a Republican and social conservative, has made it clear that he won't sign laws that restrict guns.

Mr Bevin has called on Americans to "wake up," recognise that school shootings are a "cultural problem," and to look at the "root causes".

"Our culture is crumbling from within," he said.

Mr Bevin said the desensitisation to death and killing is coming at an "extraordinary price".

"We can't celebrate death in video games, celebrate death in TV shows, celebrate death in movies, celebrate death in musical lyrics and remove any sense of morality and sense of higher authority and then expect that things like this are not going to happen," he said.