2 Die, Including Gunman, in Shooting at Washington State High School

MARYSVILLE, Wash. — The students and teachers at Marysville-Pilchuck High School knew a shooting was possible — they had seen the news from other schools, and they had trained for lockdowns. 

But when the alarms started ringing at the school about 35 miles north of Seattle just after 10:39 a.m. Friday, many still thought it was a drill. Some instinctively rushed into the halls, before teachers and staff members said this one was real, and they bolted back inside, blocking the doors, lying on the floor, and texting one another for information.

Some heard the gunshots, and some saw the bloodshed. A young classmate had opened fire in the cafeteria, killing a girl and striking two boys and two other girls in the head before turning his gun on himself and committing suicide. The students hit by gunfire were seriously injured.

Hundreds of students were trapped in classrooms for nearly three hours, as law enforcement officers combed through the sprawling campus, making sure there were no other gunmen, then methodically allowing the uninjured students to leave for a nearby church to reunite with their parents.