Woman 23 kills 2 fellow students self in classroom
BATON ROUGE, La. — A 23-year-old woman fatally shot two fellow students in a classroom at a vocational college Friday before committing suicide, police said.
The women apparently were shot in their seats in the second-floor classroom at Louisiana Technical College, Baton Rouge Sgt. Don Kelly said. About 20 people were in the emergency-medical-technology class at the time, he said.
“Why those two women were targeted … is still an unanswered question,” Kelly said.
The victims were identified as Karsheika Graves, 21, and Taneshia Butler, 26, both of Baton Rouge. The shooter was Latina Williams, whose address was unknown, Kelly said.
Williams entered the room briefly, spoke with the instructor and left, he said.
She returned through another door and fired six rounds, Kelly said, reloaded and shot herself in the head.
The police learned of the attack from a barrage of cellphone calls. Officers ran into the building within four minutes of the first 911 call, which came at 8:36 a.m., Kelly said.
“There was mass pandemonium, people running,” he said. “One officer — the first into the classroom — told me he could still smell gunpowder.”
The school — one of two Louisiana Technical College campuses in Baton Rouge and dozens around the state — offers classes in a variety of subjects, including practical nursing, drafting and welding.
School administrators and campus police did not return calls or e-mails.
Blake Thibodeaux, 20, a drafting student, said he was in a nearby classroom when he heard what he thought was a door slamming. “I ran toward it and was at the door of the classroom when she shot off the last few rounds,” he said.
Louis Davis, who said he was in an automobile technology class, said a teacher told the students to stay in class because there had been an incident, without adding details. Students had to stay in their classrooms for about two hours and were questioned by police before being released, he said.
Tags: amp, minis, target0
