Kentucky high school shooting leaves two people dead and 18 injured

This story has been updated to reflect the number of people injured according to Kentucky State Police.

When Heather Ligon arrived at her two sons' safe place near Marshall County High School on Tuesday, her youngest son, just 14, was crawling to her on hands and knees in a panic.

Ligon's sons Bryan, 14, and James Dylan, 18, were inside the school when a 15-year-old student opened fire on Tuesday, killing two students and wounding 13 others. Five other teens were hurt while fleeing, police said.

Bryan Ligon said he was close enough to smell the charred gunpowder from the small handgun the teen fired into a crowded area, known as "the commons."

Sophomore Daniel Austin, a 17-year-old special needs student, was giving out high-fives and hugs to classmates before the bell rang when a bullet slammed through his right shoulder Tuesday.

Police said the suspected shooter, who they did not name, is in custody and faces charges of murder and attempted murder.

Background: Marshall County shooting deadliest at Kentucky high school since 1997

Police identified the two students who died as Bailey Holt, 15, who was pronounced dead at the school, and Preston Cope, also 15, who was airlifted to Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, where he died.

The shooting rampage began just before 8 a.m. CST. By 8:06 a.m. — nine minutes later — the shooter was apprehended by Marshall County deputies.

“To walk in, the backpacks laying around, the phones laying around, going off … it’s indescribable,” said Marshall County Attorney Jeffrey Edwards, who was on the shooting scene Tuesday morning. “I’ve been doing this for 25 years. It’s not like anything I’ve experienced in my life.”

The shootings appeared to be random, with no specific people targeted, Edwards said.

The shooter left 20 wounded and injured students in his wake, and the entire town of Benton — and the nation — to mourn.

“In a small town like this you don’t think anything like this would ever happen here,” said Marshall County school board chairman Randy Travis. “But it did. Everybody here is in shock.”

'I sensed something was wrong'

Shane Story was watching television at his family’s home when he got a phone call from his stepmom saying there had been a shooting at the high school. His brother, Daniel Austin, is a sophomore there. Story prepared for the worst.

"I sensed something was wrong with my brother,” Story said Tuesday.

Background: 'Be strong,' Marshall County shooting victim tells his older brother

Daniel was struck by a bullet. Two minutes later, someone called 911. First responders were on the scene by 8:06 a.m. The school was thrown into chaos.

Brandon Cayton, a math teacher at the school, was preparing to drive into the school parking lot when he saw the police lights.

“I was on the road to the high school and then I saw students running away from the school,” Cayton said. “We’re all in shock.”

Five of the students, including Daniel, were flown by helicopter to Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, for immediate treatment. The other victims remain in critical but stable condition, authorities said.

A sixth patient arrived at Vanderbilt's Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital around 6:30 p.m., a spokeswoman said Tuesday night. She is listed in stable condition.

Consider this: How to talk to your kids about Tuesday's school shooting

Shane Story couldn’t get to the hospital to see his brother in Nashville because his car was broken down.

"I told him to be strong. He told me to be strong,” Story said. “It's hard to be strong when it's your little brother. I’ve always been there for him, and it sucks when you can’t.”

He said he plans to FaceTime his brother later.

After the shooting, buses started evacuating uninjured students to North Marshall Middle School to be picked up by family members. Driver Tony Webber said his bus “was completely quiet. For a school bus, that was unusual.”

Ligon said she and her two sons had talked about what to do if such an event happened at school, and they followed their plan.

But afterward, her boys wept and they had more questions than answers, a common feeling now in this small, rural sportsman's community.

Story continues below gallery

Mark Garland owns a small auto shop near the school where some students sought safety.

One girl was close enough to the shooting that she felt and saw bullet fragments pinging off the walls and was distraught, barely able to speak, Garland said.

Hundreds of other students ran down U.S. 68 in front of the school, searching for parents, he said.

"Just the looks on their faces, it just kind of sticks with you," Garland said.

Ligon said she and other parents are now worried about the safety of their children. Some have already talked about home-schooling, and others, like Ligon, are considering holding their kids out until metal detectors are installed.

The school didn’t alert parents until after 9 a.m., Ligon said. She learned of the shooting from her eldest son, who called because he couldn’t find his brother amid the panic. She said she understands why schools can’t send an immediate alert, but she expected something sooner.

“What happens to the parents that work in Paducah or Murray or Mayfield and they hear about it on the news?” she asked.

Ligon said her sons didn't know the suspected shooter, but they said whenever they saw him he was "cutting up" and cracking jokes.

'A small, close-knit community'

Bad news travels fast.

Nearly 800 miles away in Washington, D.C., Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, spoke on the Senate floor Tuesday to offer support.

"I know I speak for communities across my home state in sending prayers of comfort and healing to students, faculty and everyone affected by this violence," he said. "Our hearts are with the entire community of Marshall County and our gratitude is with the first responders who rushed into harm's way."

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona, and a survivor of gun violence, took to social media to ask the question that was on every mind in Benton: “Why?”

“Our nation’s schools should be some of the safest spaces in our communities,” Giffords said in a statement. “Why do we keep allowing this terror to happen? … It’s horrifying that we can no longer call school shootings ‘unimaginable’ because the reality is they happen with alarming frequency."

Background: Here's what Kentucky officials are saying about Tuesday's shooting

Benton, a city of approximately 4,500 people, is a few miles west of Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area.

The school is about 35 miles southeast of Heath High School in West Paducah, where 14-year-old Michael Carneal opened fire on a group of praying students, killing three and injuring five more on Dec. 1, 1997.

Christina Ellegood was a student at Heath who lost her 14-year-old sister, a freshman, during the 1997 shooting. Mass shootings like Marshall County bring back that pain she said, but she hopes she can also help give hope.

“We are now going through the same situation 20 years later," Ellegood said. “Survivors of Heath still feel this pain, and we understand what they are going through … it won’t go away overnight. Sadly we have a headstart on them and we can give them guidance.”

Read more: Woman whose sister died in Paducah school shooting stunned Tuesday

Gov. Matt Bevin, who went to the scene, called the shooting a tremendous tragedy. “It is unbelievable that this would happen in a small, close-knit community like Marshall County," he said.

At the Marshall County Courthouse, Judge/Executive Kevin Neal said the mood across the county was somber, and he asked for support for the families directly affected, as well as for first responders and 911 dispatchers.

“This is a strong county that has been through tragedies before,” he said. “It’s remarkable the way they come together in times of need and despair.”

Mark Hicks of the Leaf Chronicle in Clarksville and Natalie Alund in Tennessee contributed reporting. Thomas Novelly: 502-582-4465; tnovelly@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @TomNovelly. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/tomn.