Warrensburg – A high school tragedy that could have become a catastrophe to match those that have occurred at other schools around the nation ended with a chase along Maguire Street, then a single gunshot that left one dead.

Kyle M. Wittrock, 18, a Warrensburg High School senior, took his life about 7:55 a.m. Friday while sitting in a Ford Explorer pickup truck on a parking lot on the southeast corner of Maguire and Clark streets.

Police Chief Bruce Howey said the effort to determine a motive is in progress. The department has not released information on possible other weapons and whether Wittrock possessed multiple rounds.

“All that’s under investigation,” he said.

The incident started at the high school about 7:45 a.m.

“A school employee reported they had seen the gun and truck,” School District Superintendent Scott Patrick said.

Howey said a call to police resulted in an immediate response. An officer spotted the suspect’s vehicle at Highway DD and Maguire Street, and chased the truck north on Maguire to the vicinity of the University of Central Missouri campus, across from Kirkpatrick Library.

Wittrock parked in a parking lot behind Classic Car Wash, 827 S. Maguire St. The police vehicle pulled in behind Wittrock.

“Officers in that unit took positions of cover, waiting for additional backup units to arrive. Shortly thereafter the officers heard a shotgun blast come from the vehicle. After back-up officers arrived, officers approached the vehicle and found that the driver was deceased from a single, self-inflicted wound to the head from a shotgun,” police information stated.

“We didn’t fire a single shot. We had to break the glass to get inside (the truck),” Howey said at the scene.

Patrick said the district went into lockdown immediately after the school employee reported seeing someone with a gun at the high school.

By about 8:35 a.m., after consulting with police, Patrick authorized a message that included the most important detail parents needed to know: “Everybody’s safe.”

Three days before the shooting, school district voters rejected a bond issue that would have created a more secure high school entrance.

“We need a more secure entrance. We wouldn’t have run a bond issue to do that if we didn’t think this was a need. We can never be too safe,” Patrick said.

The district plans to make counselors available to students who want to discuss what happened, he said.

Tweets by Wittrock between March 23 and April 8, three days before the shooting, suggest his interest in the NCAA basketball finals, and also suggests feelings, not unlike other students experience and tweet to each other, sometimes meaning to be serious and sometimes humorous or ironic. Tweets included...

March 23: “When I say I’m done with people, I mean it. F--- prom and f--- high school imma just get through graduation …”

March 25: “My two teams and my bracket have already been destroyed by the tournament. RIP Oklahoma, Stephen F. Austin (University), and my bracket.”

March 25: “2 different people have killed themselves after being interviewed by the great Nancy Grace. Get her off TV please.”

April 2: “There was just another shooting at Fort Hood. Damn I feel bad for people that have been stationed there for the past 5 years.”

April 5: “Time to break out the mowing shoes.”

April 5: “Rejection is my middle name.”

April 7: “4/11/14 will be an amazing day.”

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