Jaylen Fryberg targeted his cousins, Nate Hatch, Andrew Fryberg in Washington school shooting
The shooter and one girl are dead as Jaylen Fryberg opened fire on students in the high school cafeteria in Washington state, relatives have confirmed, saying he was not shooting at random targets.
Two of the injured at Marysville-Pilchuck High School are cousins. “All three of them are cousins, and they live right close to each other,” Don Hatch told CNN affiliate KOMO.
UPDATE: Gia Soriano has passed away – MORE HERE, Zoe Galasso identified as the first shooting victim – full story HERE
His 14-year-old grandson, Nate Hatch, is among four wounded in the shooting rampage Friday. He didn’t hint at problems between, noting that they even went to a school dance together last week, where Fryberg was named the freshman class homecoming prince. (See the photo to the left, YouTube screenshot from event)
Authorities have not publicly identified the shooter or the student he killed. The shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Marysville police spokesman Robb Lamoureux said.
The boys, Andrew Fryberg, 15, and Hatch, are at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Susan Gregg, the hospital’s spokeswoman, said. Fryberg is in critical condition and Hatch is listed in serious condition, she said.
The girls were identified as Shaylee Chuckulnaskit and Gia Soriano, both 14, according to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett’s chief medical officer Dr. Joanne Roberts. They were in critical condition with head injuries.
At a news conference Saturday, Roberts read a brief statement from Soriano’s family: “Our family is in shock. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers during this tragedy. Our hearts go out to the other victims and their families.”
Roberts said dead tissue was being removed from the girls’ head wounds and surgery was conducted to allow their brains to swell and contract.
“The next three days are going to be crucial,” she said.
Austin Taylor said to KING5 he was sitting about 10 feet from the shooter inside the cafeteria.
“I was sitting at the table right next to the round table (where the shooter was). I just got done eating my food. He was quiet, everyone was talking. All of sudden he stands up, pulls something out of his pocket. At first I thought it was someone making a really loud noise like a bag, a loud pop. There were four more after that. I saw three kids just fall from the table, like they were falling to the ground dead. I jumped under the table as fast as I could. When it stopped, I got back up and saw he was trying to reload his gun. And when that happened, I just ran in the opposite direction and I was out of there as fast as I could.”
Another student described his experience on campus following the incident.
“We all heard the fire alarm. We didn’t hear any gunshots because we were so far away,” said Bryce Vitcovitch, student. “We all started to evacuate into the field. Right when we got to the field, a teacher came running out obviously in a hurry and he was yelling to go back into the classrooms…We got into the classrooms immediately and from there rumors started flying.”
[…] Jaylen Fryberg targeted his cousins, Nate Hatch, Andrew Fryberg in Washington school shooting […]
[…] Jaylen Fryberg targeted his cousins, Nate Hatch, Andrew Fryberg in Washington school shooting […]
I saw that his mother wendy also has a twitter account. It doesn’t appear that she was very active on there however she did have an account and obviously was familiar enough with twitter to be able to check her sons account regularly. Regardless someone should have been monitoring such a vulgar and clearly unhappy CHILD. The fact that she was involved in social media and couldn’t take the time to check in on her sons twitter feed or Facebook page makes me physically ill. It’s unsettling and horrifying to think that teens these days are allowed to have a free for all out there – whether it be in cyberspace or in public and that they are not being monitored or PARENTED by their own mothers and fathers. People wake up. Know where your kids are, know what they’re doing online, know their friends, KNOW THEM. Negligence is shameful.
Pretty judgmental don’t you think? God was also watching and didn’t stop it. Other’s on earth were reading and watching and didn’t stop it either. Your simplistic lala land idea that this one kid was any different from thousands of others at any given moment spouting teenage mindsets online is just plan naïve on your part. There is nothing new under the sun and this bs claim that things used to be so much better is caca. The ONLY thing different is that now we live in a 24 hour news cycle and have no thought we won’t share is there for all to see! You really need to cease with the assumptions about the parent(s) or anyone else. Your judging makes me ill and you need to getreal because you got it ALL wrong.
Today it is the same script with different actors. There is good and bad in everyone. Each person is and will do what their mind and/or heart leads to do. There are good and bad parents and children. Until you have walked in someone else’s shoes just concentrate on your footprints.