Videogames don't kill people, Marilyn Manson kills people.
A 14-year-old who cussed at his teachers, bickered with students and had a history of mental problems opened fire at his high school, wounding four before killing himself as police arrived.
It was a rampage Asa H. Coon, who had been suspended two days earlier for fighting, had warned classmates of _ but none took him seriously.
"When he got suspended, he was like 'I got something for you all,'" said student Frances Henderson, who fought bitterly with Coon. "He just said, 'I got something for you all guys.' I guess this is what he had."
Police believe Coon, a freshman, targeted the two teachers he shot. He also shot two students while others hid in closets, bathrooms and ran panicked out of SuccessTech Academy alternative school Wednesday. Students gathered outside, many crying, hugging one another and talking cell phones.
Parents were angry that firearms got into a school equipped with metal detectors that students said were intermittently used.
Coon's troubles seemed to come to a tipping point this week when he was suspended for fighting outside with a classmate. Monday's fight was over God _ Coon told his classmates he didn't believe in God and instead worshipped rocker Marilyn Manson, students said.
Armed with two revolvers Wednesday, he fired eight shots, said Police Chief Michael McGrath. Police found a duffel bag stocked with ammunition and three knives in a bathroom, but did not find a suicide note.
McGrath said Coon had discipline problems at the school.
Math teacher David Kachadourian, who was treated and released for a minor wound to the back of one shoulder, knew of no reason why Coon might target him. Coon was a student in his beginning algebra class.
"I never felt personally threatened or personally at risk," he said. "I had concerns about him, yes. He seemed like an angry young man. I did not fear for my own safety."
Coon had mental health problems, spent time in two juvenile facilities and threatened to commit suicide while in a mental health facility, according to juvenile court records obtained by The Plain Dealer.
The Department of Children and Family Services was called to the Coon home in 2000 because Coon had burns on his arms and scratches on his forehead, the newspaper said.
When he was 12, Coon was charged in juvenile court with domestic violence. His mother, Lori, had called police and told them that her son slapped her and called her a vulgar name. She had been trying to intervene in a fight between Coon and his twin sister Nicole, The Plain Dealer reported.
He was also suspended from school last year for attempting to physically harm a student, the newspaper said.
"He used to cuss all the teachers out," said Henderson, 14. "They put him in in-house. That's all they did."
Coon, who is white, stood out in the predominantly black school for being a "gothic," wearing a black trench coat, black boots, a dog collar, chains and a glove, she said.
Henderson, who is black, she said she didn't believe race played a role in the shootings, nor was there racial tension at the school.
"He's crazy. He threatened to blow up our school. He threatened to stab everybody," said Doneisha LeVert, 14. "We didn't think nothing of it."
People in Coon's home late Wednesday declined to comment.
Outside, others said he was an outcast who had been bullied by children at school and in his neighborhood. His parents are separated and his dad lives out of state, McGrath said.
"He just couldn't handle the kids always messing with him," Joseph Fletcher told The Plain Dealer. "I'm not justifying nothing and not saying he's did the right thing but his cries for help were just not heard."
The city school district canceled all classes for Thursday, and counseling will be available for students.
Witnesses said the shooter moved through the converted office building to the third floor of classrooms. He was wearing a Marilyn Manson concert shirt, black jeans and black-painted finger nails, police said.
The first person shot, 14-year-old Michael Peek, had punched Coon in the face right before the shootings began, said student Rasheem Smith, 15. Peek didn't know his classmate had a gun.
Coon "came out of the bathroom and bumped Mike and he (Mike) punched him in his face. Mike started walking. He shot Mike in the side."
"He was in one of my reading classes," Smith added. "He never really talked to nobody."
Shooting victim Darnell Rodgers, 18, was walking up to another floor when the stairway suddenly became flooded with students.
"They were screaming, and they were saying, 'Oh my God, oh my God.' I knew something was wrong, but thought that it was probably just a fight, so I just kept going," Rodgers said.
He realized he had been shot when he felt his arm burning.
Rodgers was released from a hospital after treatment for a graze wound to his right elbow.
The other shot student was taken to a children's hospital, which would not release the student's name, age or condition.
Michael Grassie, a 42-year-old history teacher, was hospitalized in fair condition late Wednesday after about two hours of surgery. The hospital would not disclose the nature of the surgery.
School officials said a 14-year-old girl fell and hurt her knee while running out of the building.
Charles Blackwell, president of SuccessTech's student-parent organization, said he did not know how Coon got into the building Wednesday.
Blackwell said that there was a security guard on the first floor, but that the position of another guard on the third floor had been eliminated. He was told by school district officials that the funding wasn't available.
"We wrote a petition for a security guard. We asked for metal detectors. We got nothing," Blackwell said.
SuccessTech Academy, with about 240 students, is an alternative high school in the public school district that stresses technology and entrepreneurship. The school, opened five years ago, ranks in the middle of the state's ratings for student performance. Its graduation rate is 94 percent, well above the district's rate of 55 percent.
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Associated Press writers James Hannah, Terry Kinney, M.R. Kropko, John Seewer and Thomas J. Sheeran and Andrew Welsh-Huggins contributed to this report.
Here we go again.
