Traci Stoop, a science and engineering teacher at Abraham Lincoln, was at the scene immediately after it happened.

Escritt “was not in a very good state, and I was standing by him and it was just awful,” she said. “It was just a lot of emotional kids. ... It was pretty bad.

“It was something that a teacher never wants to experience or a student doesn’t want to experience.”

Friends of Escritt released balloons at a memorial Sunday night. On Facebook, the page “Dakota Escritt-Support” garnered more than 3,000 likes by Monday morning.

Escritt was born in Nebraska City and had lived in La Vista and Omaha, residing for a time at the Omaha Home for Boys and Boys Town, according to court documents. For a little over a year he lived with a foster mother.

In 2012, he went to live with his paternal grandmother and step-grandfather in Council Bluffs, who adopted him.

On Monday, the family declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.