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A6 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 14 sepTember 2017
Officials: Cop: Man asked

Student killed confronting shooter at high school stepdad to leave,
then shot mom

BY NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS Michael Harper, a 15-year- Bad.” He also said the sus- A two-lane road into the
Associated Press old sophomore, said the pect was obsessed with town of about 500 people By MICHAEL CASEY
ROCKFORD, Wash. (AP) — suspect had brought notes other school shootings. near the Idaho border was Associated Press
A student who opened fire in the beginning of the Students say the shooter clogged as worried par- NORTH HAVERHILL, N.H.
in a hallway at a Washing- school year, saying he was was armed with a pistol ents sped to the school. (AP) — A man charged
ton state high school killed going to do “something and rifle and had carried a Some people abandoned with killing his 70-year-old
a classmate who con- stupid” and might get duffel bag to school. After their cars on the street to mother in her room at a
fronted him Wednesday killed or jailed. shots were fired, students make it to their children. hospital intensive care unit
and wounded three others Some students alerted went running and scream- Cheryl Moser said her son, had asked his stepfather
before being stopped by counselors, the teen told ing down the hallways, a freshman, called her to leave so they could be
a staff member, authorities AP, but it wasn’t clear Harper said. from a classroom after alone and then aimed a
said. what school officials did in Authorities didn’t release hearing shots fired. gun at her and fired sev-
The suspect, who a class- response. the suspect’s identity or a “He called me and said, eral times, according to a
mate described as be- police complaint released
ing obsessed with previ- Wednesday.
ous school shootings, was Travis Frink, of Warwick,
taken into custody. The Rhode Island, pleaded not
wounded victims were ex- guilty to a first-degree mur-
pected to survive, officials der charge in the death
said. of his mother, Pamela Fer-
The shooter brought two riere. He was being held
weapons to Freeman without bail.Ferriere, of
High School in Rockford, Groton, was fatally shot
south of Spokane, but the Tuesday at Dartmouth-
first one he tried to fire Hitchcock Medical Center
jammed, Spokane County in Lebanon, where she was
Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich told being treated for an aneu-
reporters. rysm. She was expected to
“He went to his next weap- be released Friday.Frink, 48,
on,” Kzenovich said. “A was handcuffed and said
student walked up to him, nothing during the brief ar-
engaged him, and that raignment Wednesday in
student was shot. That stu- Grafton Superior Court in
dent did not survive.” North Haverhill.
The sheriff said the shooter Prosecutor Jane Young
fired more rounds down asked that Frink have no
the hallway, striking the contact with his stepfather,
other students, before a Bob Ferriere, who told po-
school staffer could stop lice he saw Frink shoot her.
him. Kzenovich called it a Parents gather in the parking lot behind Freeman High School in Rockford, Wash. to wait for their Defense lawyer Rebecca
kids, after a deadly shooting at the high school Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017.
courageous act that pre- (Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review via AP) McKinnon agreed to the
vented further bloodshed. request. She declined to
Elisa Vigil, a 14-year-old A call to the school was possible motive. The vic- ‘Mom, there are gunshots.’ comment afterward.
freshman, told The Asso- not immediately returned. tims also were not named. He sounded so scared. I’ve A police affidavit says Frink
ciated Press that she saw Harper said the shooter Luis Prito, an assistant foot- never heard him like that,” told officers he went to the
one male student shot had many friends and ball coach at Freeman Moser told The Spokesman- hospital to kill his mother.
in the head who janitors was not bullied, calling High, called the shooting Review newspaper. “You No reason or motive was
covered with a cloth and him “nice and funny and devastating. never think about some- given.“Who shoots their
another female student weird” and a huge fan “This is a real close-knit thing happening like this at mother? Who does that?”
wounded in the back. of the TV show “Breaking community,” he said. a small school.”q said Patti Oakley, a neigh-
Officer: bor of the Ferrieres’. She
said her heart broke when
Slender Man stabbing victim says teen obsessed she heard the news.
The town of Groton put
out a statement saying Pa-
WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — A grader classmate Morgan even after she stabbed families. Jurors saw clips mela Ferriere was active in
detective who interviewed Geyser and Anissa Weier her, the Milwaukee Journal Wednesday of investiga- town government and in
a 12-year-old girl after she to stab Payton Leutner 19 Sentinel reported. tors questioning Weier after her local church, and she
was stabbed repeatedly times in a Waukesha park. Fisher testified in the trial of the attack, during which enjoyed gardening and
and left for dead in a Wis- Leutner became so con- Weier, now 15. Jurors will Weier moved from appar- biking with her husband.
consin park in 2014 testified cerned about the stories determine whether Weier ent complete belief in Slen- Oakley said she loved to
Wednesday that one of the Geyser was telling her that was mentally ill and there- der Man, to some doubt, to bake Halloween cookies
two classmates accused of she asked her mother if fore not criminally respon- a realization by the end of for children.“Pam will be
attacking her had been they were real, Waukesha sible at the time. Geyser, her interrogation that she missed, but we know she
scaring her beforehand Police Detective Shelly Fish- who did the actual stab- had been duped.“I know is with her Lord and Sav-
with stories about charac- er said. Leutner told Fisher bing, is scheduled to go on now it’s just teenagers who ior,” the town said. “She
ters from a horror website. her mother tried to assure trial next month.Weier told really like scaring people was looking to be home
It was their devotion to the her it was all fiction, but she investigators she and Gey- and making them believe from the hospital soon and
fictional horror character also told the detective that ser believed they had to kill false things,” Weier told back to her home that she
Slender Man that authori- she still was uncertain and Leutner or else Slender Man Waukesha Detective Mi- and Bob shared and to her
ties say motivated sixth- wanted to believe Geyser would kill them and their chelle Trussoni. q normal activities.”q