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U.S. NEWS Wednesday 21 February 2018
7th-grader with distraction device shoots himself at school

a self-inflicted gunshot "They wouldn't tell us what
wound, was being treated was going on. I thought
at a hospital, but police there was a school shoot-
and school officials said ing. There was a lot of wait-
they did not know his con- ing," eighth-grader Alex
dition. Garcia told The Indepen-
No other students were hurt dent. "I didn't have any
in the shooting at Jackson idea there was someone
Middle School, near Massil- with a gun until I was re-
lon. leased."
It was not immediately Parents rushed to the
clear whether the shooting school, which has about
was intentional or how the 1,400 students, to get their
boy, who rode the bus to children soon after admin-
school, managed to sneak istrators sent out a notice
the .22-caliber long gun about the shooting.
into the building, said Jack- Some waited outside the
son Township Police Chief school for hours before the
Mark Brink. students were allowed to
Authorities said they also leave.
did not know where the "That Florida shooting just
boy got the gun or if any- happened, and you keep
A police car is parked outside Jackson Township Middle School, Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018 in Mas- one else was involved. thinking about your kid,"
sillon, Ohio. A school official in Ohio says a middle school student apparently shot himself after Bomb-sniffing dogs said Daniela Biller, who
bringing a gun to school. Police say Jackson Middle School, near Massillon, is on lockdown Tues-
day and that the students and staff are safe. searched the building, in- has three students at the
(Bob Rossiter/The Canton Repository via AP) vestigators said. school.
MASSILLON, Ohio (AP) — a distraction, police said.
An Ohio seventh-grader While investigators said
who brought a gun to the device was not an ex-
school and shot himself in- plosive that would have
side a restroom just before harmed anyone, they also
classes began on Tuesday would not describe it in de-
also had a device in his tail.
backpack meant to cause The student, who suffered

Texas board recommends

killer be spared from death

By WILL WEISSERT board has recommended
MICHAEL GRACZYK clemency within days of an
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The inmate's scheduled execu-
Texas Board of Pardons tion. In two of those cases,
and Paroles, in a rare deci- then-Gov. Rick Perry reject-
sion, unanimously recom- ed the board's recommen-
mended Tuesday that the dation and those prisoners
death sentence of con- are among the 548 execut-
victed killer Thomas "Bart" ed in Texas, more than any
Whitaker be commuted. other state. David Gutier-
Whitaker is scheduled for rez, the parole board’s
lethal injection Thursday presiding officer, said the
for masterminding the fa- panel recommended the
tal shootings of his mother governor commute Whita-
and brother at their subur- ker’s sentence “to a lesser
ban Houston home in 2003. penalty.” Jurors who con-
Whitaker's father, Kent, also victed him and sentenced
was shot in the attack but him to death in 2007 had
survived. He said he wants only one other option, life
his 38-year-old son to live. imprisonment.
The recommendation from In the clemency petition,
the seven-member panel Whitaker’s attorneys said
goes to Republican Gov. his execution would “per-
Greg Abbott, who can ac- manently compound” his
cept it or reject it. The gov- father’s suffering and grief,
ernor appoints the parole and compared the case
board. to the biblical story of Cain
It's only the fourth time since and Abel, where God sent
the state resumed execu- Cain to “restlessly wander”
tions in 1982 that the parole after killing his brother.q