Suicide or School Shooting?

Fox News is reporting on the afternoon of October 17, 2006, that there is a lockdown at a high school at Katy, Texas, which is west of Houston.

According to early reports, there is some confusion about whether the "student shot" is from a school shooting or via an attempted suicide in the school.

As I have mentioned often, 80%-100% of school shootings begin with a suicidal individual, who becomes homicidal in the process of their plan. I am not surprised that such situations are now developing in the wake of the recent wave of school shootings. The copycat effect involves any and all suicidal and suicidal-homicidal vulnerable folks in its wildfire response. The media is confused, but the foundation of every school shooting, I sense, lies in a thought of suicide - whether by "suicide by cop" or suicide by their own hand.

+++

Now online...here's the dispatch, in part:

Oct 17, 2006 11:33 am US/Pacific

Texas H.S. On Lockdown After 17 Year Old Shot

(CBS 13) KATY, Texas A high school in Katy, Texas is on lockdown after a 17-year-old was shot on campus late Tuesday morning. Initial reports indicate that the teen attempted to commit suicide at Seven Lakes High School. Officials are not confirming if the victim is a student at the school.

+++

Unfortunately, the late news is that this young man in Texas has taken his own life:

The sophomore went to a secluded area next to the Seven Lakes High School's cafeteria courtyard around noon and shot himself, said Steve Stanford, a Katy Independent School District spokesman.

The boy left a note, Stanford said. Officials would not release its contents.

A student who witnessed the shooting ran to a school nurse for help, and the nurse and an assistant principal called 911. A helicopter transported the boy to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where he later died.