WAYNESBORO, Va. — A 19-year-old gunman forced his way into a central Virginia elementary school on Wednesday, where police said he wounded a staff member before fatally shooting himself, authorities said.
The shooting occurred at Westwood Hills Elementary School in Waynesboro at about 9:12 a.m. ET, WHSV reported.
One school staff member sustained a gunshot wound that was not considered to be life-threatening, according to the television station. The victim was treated and released.
Waynesboro police said that a “suspicious person” was at the school. He entered the building by forcing his way through a locked door, Waynesboro police Chief David Shaw said during a news conference.
Shaw said that officers responded immediately and entered the building, where they found the suspect dead inside the school library from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Shaw said.
The man was identified by police as Anthony I. Ignatiadis-Isabelle, 19, of Waynesboro.
“Today is the day every school system hopes they never have to deal with,” Waynesboro Public Schools Superintendent Jeffrey Cassell said during a news conference. He added that the district’s “safety and security protocols and procedures worked.”
Cassell confirmed that no students were injured or where in the library, WSHV reported. He added that the district had conducted two lockdown drills over the past 20 school days, according to the television station.
Students were evacuated from the school while authorities entered the building, WVIR reported.
Westwood Hills Elementary School was closed on Thursday, according to a news release from the school district.
A vigil was held at New Valley Church on Wednesday, hours after the shooting, WVIR reported.
Pastor Kelvin Washington said the day’s events hit close to home.
“What happens when it happens here, you don’t know until it happens and you try doing the best that you can to be able to care for your neighbors and to get active for them and to do what you can,” Washington told the television station.
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