THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2013
PAGE 3
NATIONAL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Community members gather to pay their respects to Michael Landsberry, a 45-year-old eighth-grade math teacher, soccer coach and former Marine, who was killed by an eighth-grader at Sparks Middle School on Monday in Sparks, Nev.
Nev. boy says he came face-to-face with shooter
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SPARKS, Nev. — Students covered in fear and pleaded for their lives as a 12-year-old Nevada boy went on a schoolyard rampage with a handgun he brought from home, waving the weapon at frightened classmates and shooting a math teacher in the chest on a basketball court.
The boy opened fire Monday morning on the Sparks Middle School campus, wounding two boys and killing the teacher before he turned the gun on himself.
Washoe County School District police revealed Tuesday that the seventh-grader brought the 9mm semi-automatic Ruger handgun from his home, but authorities were still working to determine how he obtained it. The student's parents were cooperating with authorities and could face charges in the case, police said.
Eighth-grader Angelo Ferro recalled burying his face in his hands and pleading for his life as the boy waved the gun and threatened to shoot. Another seventh
grader and Ferro's math teacher, Michael Landsberry, lay gunned down nearby.
"The whole time I was hoping Mr. L was OK, we'd all get through it, it was a bad dream." Ferro told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Ferro, 13, was in the schoolyard with friends when the violence started.
He heard a pop about 15 minutes before the morning bell rang but didn't think much of it. Then he saw an injured boy clutching his wounded arm, and he watched Landsberry walk toward the gunman and take a bullet to the chest.
Unable to get inside the locked-down school. Ferro and others crouched against the building for safety but soon came face-to-face with the armed student.
Ferro didn't know the boy but said he and other frightened classmates tried to talk him out of firing. But something distracted the boy and he didn't shoot.
"You could hear the panic," Ferro said. "He left, thank God."
A series of 911 calls made from the school also reflected the terror
of the situation, including an omnious report of "teacher down."
"Can you send please send police out here," a panicked student told a 911 dispatcher. "There's a kid with a gun."
for the shooting but said they interviewed 20 or 30 witnesses and are looking into any prior connections between the victims and the shooter.
Authorities provided no motive
"Everybody wants to know why — that's the big question," Sparks Deputy Police Chief
Tom Miller said. "The answer is, we don't know right now."
Also Tuesday, law enforcement and school officials again lauded the actions of Landsberry, a 45-year-old former Marine who tried to stop the rampage before he was killed.
hero."
Students said they saw Landsberry walk calmly toward the shooter and ask him to hand over his weapon before he was killed. Washe County School District Police Chief Mike Mieras
"You could hear the panic. He left, thank God."
"I cannot express enough appreciation for Mr. Landsberry." Washoe County School District Superintendent Pedro Martinez said at a news conference. "He truly is a news conference."
ANGELO FERRO
Sparks Middle School student
Landsberry's actions gave some students enough time to run to safety.
Police said they believe the shooter at one point tried to enter the school but couldn't open the door because
of emergency lockdown procedures.
Atter killing Landsberry, the boy fired at a second student, hitting him in the abdomen. He then shot himself in the head.
The two 12-year-old boys who were wounded are in stable condition and recovering.
Sparks, just east of Reno, has a population of roughly 90,000.
classes were canceled. The middle school will remain closed for the week, while an adjacent elementary school is set to reopen Wednesday.
Students from the middle school and neighboring elementary school were evacuated to a high school after the shooting and all
population of roughly 90,000. Landsberry coached several youth sports. He also served two tours in Afghanistan with the Nevada National Guard and was well-known in the school community. Sparks Mayor Geno Martini said. Landsberry served in the Marine Corps from 1986 to 1990 and was stationed in Camp Lejeune, N.C., and Okinawa, Japan, according to military records.
Senior Master Sgt. Robert Garrett attended middle school with Landsbury in Reno before serving as his supervisor in recent years at the Nevada Air National Guard.
"Every one of the people I have talked to just knew that Mike was in there," Garrett said. "He was the guy that would have jumped in there to stop the bullets from hitting other kids. And sure enough, it was."
Learn about strategies for student time management in a public event at 12:30 p.m. in Anschutz Library today. Check out hawkdaysku.edu for many more student success events this week.
POLICE REPORTS
Information based on the Douglas County Sheriff's Office booking recap.
- A 19-year-old male was arrested Monday on the 3300 block of Aldrich Street on suspicion of aggravated assault, disorderly conduct and battery. A $1,000 bond was paid.
- A 20-year-old female was arrested Monday on the 1100 block of 13th Street on suspicion of domestic battery and criminal damage to property. No bond was posted.
STATE
Emily Donovan
Davis teams with Docking in Kansas governor's race
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOPEKA — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Paul Davis on Tuesday introduced Jill Docking as his running mate, making taxes and education spending the focus of their 2014 campaign.
Docking, a 57-year-old investment adviser from Wichita whose husband was lieutenant governor in the 1980s, said she and Davis shared a "grave concern" over the lack of funding for public schools.
"It is the reason for this partner
the vote to Brownback's 54 percent.
Her husband, Tom, is a former lieutenant governor and he's the son and grandson of Kansas governors.
"She understands that a good public education system is really the key to economic success," Davis said of Docking, who served on the Kansas Board of Regents from 2007 to 2010.
In 1996, she was Republican Gov. Sam Brownback's opponent for the U.S. Senate, garnering 43 percent of
ship and I think it will be a strong partnership. Because we have many, most of the same values," she said at Highland Park High School during the Topeka stop of a four-city bus tour with Davis.
Brownback, who is yet to formally announce his re-election campaign, won his first term as governor in 2010. Docking ruled out her own run at governor this summer, saying she didn't know what her political future held.
Kansas GOP Chairman Kelly Arnold said Democrats were "doubling down" on President Barack
Obama's agenda by placing two delegates to the Democratic national convention at the top of their ticket.
He and Docking criticized Brownback's cuts to income tax cuts enacted in 2012, saying the higher sales and property taxes put too much of a burden on the middle class.
Davis, 41, is the Kansas House minority leader. He announced that he was seeking his party's nomination for the gubernatorial ticket in September — his first bid at statewide election.
"When you're in a hole, the first thing that you do is you stop digging. You cannot go farther in terms of income tax cuts that this state simply cannot afford," Davis said.
Kansas Republican Party Executive Director Clay Barker said legislators had to focus on all areas of government, not just education, when setting spending priorities.
"I think there is a difference in pushing for stronger and quality education versus just pushing for
more money. Money is a component of that but it's not the only component," Barker said.
Docking's addition to the Davis team will help give the Democratic ticket name recognition, which should help in fundraising efforts. Barker noted that no Docking has won an election in Kansas in more than 30 years.
THE LANGSTON HUGHES VISITING PROFESSORSHIP COMMITTEE
OFFICE OF THE PROVOST
Invite you to
RACE, RELIGION & RITUAL
Afro-Cuban Poets in the Age of Revolution A lecture presented by
MATTHEW PETTWAY
Fall 2013 Langston Hughes Visiting Professor, Spanish & Portuguese Department
quay, October 23, 2013 @ 3:00 p.m. in the Kansas Room at the Kansas Union A reception in Malott will immediately follow