Missed Warning Signs: Cleveland School Shooter Had History of Mental Illness
Student Warned of Retaliation After He Was Suspended, but He Was Ignored
By AARON KATERSKY
Oct. 11, 2007 —
A 14-year-old Cleveland student, who shot and wounded four people before killing himself Wednesday, had been suspended for fighting two days earlier and was not supposed to be on campus, school officials say.
Classmates say he warned of retaliation after the suspension, but no one took him seriously.
The student, identified as Asa H. Coon, had a history of mental problems and was known for using profanity when speaking to teachers and bickering with students.
It's not clear why he was allowed into the school.
"When he got suspended, he was like 'I got something for you all,'" classmate Frances Henderson said. "I guess this is what he had."
Classes at all Cleveland public schools were canceled today.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper reported that Coon had been in juvenile detention facilities two times and had threatened to commit suicide.
He was also arrested in 2006 after a "domestic disturbance" incident at his home, police say.
Coon may have targeted specific victims in his rampage, Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath said. "We do not believe this was a random shooting."
But student Jeremy Rivers told ABC News that it did not look that way to him, Coons "didn't care who he was shooting. He was crazy."
'A Real Angry Kid'
David Kachadourian, 57, a math teacher shot by Coon, told ABC's "Nightline" that he did not realize at first that he had been shot, and he took some students and hid in a closet, before realizing he was bleeding.
Kachadourian who had Coon as a student said he saw him waving two guns and yelling just before he was shot. He knew Coon was troubled. "He did behave in a way that suggested he was angry, yes. He seemed like a real angry kid," he said.
The AP reported that the fight that predicated his suspension was about God. He told a student he did not believe in God, but worshiped "Goth rock" star Marilyn Manson.
Coon reportedly liked to wear trench coats and paint his fingernails black, an eerie reminder of the students behind the infamous Columbine High School massacre.
Coon may have targeted the two teachers who were among the victims, McGrath said.
Kachadourian told "Good Morning America" today that he could not think of an incident that would make him a target, but said that as one of Coon's teachers, "I suppose it was possible."
Coon fatally shot himself after opening fire shortly after 1 p.m. EDT on the fourth floor of Success Tech Academy, a nontraditional public school in the city's downtown area.
The specialized school, funded in part from a grant from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was one of the last places many would expect a shooting like this to occur. Kachadourian, however, said the school, which was designed to give individual attention to promising poor students, had begun to change. "When it began, the class size was supposed to be no more than 15 students," he told "GMA." Now, Kachadourian said his "smallest class has 30 kids and his largest has 40."
As for motive, McGrath said, "There were no plans or notes on the shooter that we know of at this time." The shooter "had some disciplinary problems at the school and some problems with students at the school," he added.
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Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson identified the shooting victims as two adult males and two teenage males. A 42-year-old also was shot in the chest. A 17-year-old student was shot in the elbow. The three were taken to the Metro Health Hospital.
A 14-year-old male was shot in the side and transported to Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, where he was in stable condition, Jackson said. A 14-year-old female student injured her knee trying to flee from the shooter.
Two handguns, a 22-caliber and a 38-caliber, a box of ammunition and three knives were recovered from Coon's body or near him, but McGrath said he doesn't have "a true picture of why the student went to the school with those weapons."
The shootings took place on the third and fourth floors. McGrath said it's unclear where each victim was shot because there was blood on both floors. Police believe a total of eight rounds were fired.
Coon shot himself on the fourth floor after peering out a window, according to McGrath. It's possible, McGrath added, that Coon saw police show up at the school before he shot himself once in the head. "The suspect did not have any weapons in his hands. They were laying next to his body," he said.
There was an armed security guard at the front desk at 1 p.m., around the time the shootings began. McGrath confirmed there are no metal detectors at SuccessTech Academy.
There is some indication that Coon came from a troubled home. In addition to his 2006 arrest, his parents are separated and police had previously been called to Coon's home under "numerous circumstances," according to McGrath.
Tammy Mundy, who has a son and a daughter at the school, told the Plain Dealer that her daughter called her from a cell phone when the shooting began and said that she had hid in a closet.
Mundy said she then called her son Darnell Rodgers, who also attends SuccessTech. He told her he had been shot. "He said, 'Mom, I got shot,'" Mundy told the newspaper.
One student told the AP that she heard the principal say "code blue" over the public address system and that kids started running. Another student said he saw three people come out on stretchers.
"He was about to shoot me, but I got out just in time," Ronnell Jackson, 15, told the AP. "He was aiming at me. I got out just in time."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.