Police: Revenge prompted deadly New Mexico campus shooting
A campus shooting that killed an estimated 10 students at a high school in New Mexico sent a wave of anger through the region and prompted a call for revenge.
Two shooters were believed to have been responsible for the shooting at Mountain View High School on Thursday that left nine students dead and nine more wounded.
The shooter died at the scene and the suspected killers — a 15-year-old student and a suspect with a history of mental illness who was not a student — were found dead in their vehicle several hours later, authorities said.
The alleged shooter apparently knew the 15-year-old suspect’s name but did not realize the student’s mental health issue was violent. Police also said the teen knew the 18-year-old suspect’s name.
“The young men involved in the shooting in New Mexico today did everything right, with the exception of taking the wrong path and ultimately getting involved in a senseless and tragic event that resulted in the loss of nine lives,” New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas said in a statement.
Balderas called the shooting “an act of pure brutality on behalf of one man, who killed nine innocent people and caused the others to suffer tremendously.”
“This act of senseless, cowardly violence did not just strike members of our community; it struck the entire state of New Mexico. The state and its residents are suffering the consequences of this heinous act, and we will not rest until this evil is thoroughly and completely eradicated,” Balderas said. “Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims and their families.”
The shooting erupted just before noon at the school about 100 miles east of Albuquerque, police said. Mountain View Police Chief Michael Rivera said one shooter was on campus but did not indicate the shooter was affiliated with the school, which is part of Maricopa County.
The school was put on lockdown about 4 p.m., Superintendent John Jansen said. School officials canceled the first day of classes, the high-school’s graduation and an open house for employees about 6:45 p.m.
The suspected shooter fled the scene, Rivera said later, and appeared to have taken the boys’ car — a blue Ford Explorer — while it was parked on a road in a residential neighborhood.
Rivera
