Student Gunman Was An Eagle Scout

An 11th-grader despondent that his parents might curtail his after-school activities because of poor grades took a rifle to school Tuesday and killed himself between classes in a hallway, authorities said.

The gunman, Shane Joseph Halligan, 16, had no intention of hurting anyone else in the 9 a.m. shooting at Springfield Township High School, Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. said.

Halligan was an Eagle Scout and a volunteer firefighter whose poor grades had led his parents on Monday to threaten to cut back on his after-school activities, Castor said.

"The picture that's emerging is he was despondent over (the fact) his grades are down, his parents are taking appropriate steps to limit extracurricular activities to get the grades up, and he saw the things that he felt were important in his life being taken from him," Castor said.

The boy pledged to get his grades back up.

On Tuesday morning, he ate breakfast with his family. At some point, he retrieved the rifle from a locked cabinet and found high-powered ammunition in the basement, Castor said.

The boy fired shots into the ceiling in the science-wing hallway after first period, said Michael Delaurentis, who was about 30 feet away.

"I was walking to my class," said Delaurentis, who turned 18 on Tuesday. "I just hear 'Get down.' I heard shots fired into the ceiling and I saw smoke."

A security camera showed the boy taking the gun out of bag and shooting into the ceiling, said Randall D. Hummel, the township police chief. Students in the hallway scrambled for cover, and the teenager walked to another hallway out of view, then shot himself, Hummel said.

It was an "apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound," Hummel said. Halligan left a note for his family, but authorities did not disclose its contents.

The student's death was initially reported on the school district's Web site.

"We have received a report that a student brought a rifle to the High School. Shots were fired. Some students left the building. What we know is that an unidentified student shot himself. NOBODY ELSE HAS BEEN INJURED," the online statement said.

The township police station is next door to the high school and officers were on the scene almost immediately.

Officers in the building heard a single shot and found the boy dead in the hallway, Hummel said.

Halligan's father talked briefly to reporters outside the family's home Tuesday.

"We see this on the news and wonder how it could happen. It doesn't happen in our family," John Halligan said, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. "I'm at a loss."

The other students were evacuated to an adjacent middle school, and all the district's schools were locked down, said Laura Feller, a spokeswoman for the Springfield Township School District. Parents trickled to the school later Tuesday morning to pick up their children.

Nearly three months ago, a 10th-grader at the same school, just outside Philadelphia, was arrested on suspicion of bringing in a loaded gun.

Superintendent Roseann Nyiri said officials considered installing metal detectors after that but felt it was an isolated incident. Instead, they decided they would try to screen for children who are potentially at risk and try to work with them.

"We're all very much aware that even metal detectors have not deterred students from bringing guns into schools in the past," Hummel said.

Delaurentis' father, Michael, said: "It just makes you a little in fear of the future, and not just at this school, any school, because I don't think any school is 100 percent secure."