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A 15-year-old <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/11/30/oxford-high-school-shooting/">opened fire at his Michigan high school Tuesday</a>, killing at least three people and wounding eight others, authorities said, in what appears to be the deadliest episode of on-campus violence in more than 18 months.

The suspect, who police have not named, was a sophomore at Oxford High School in southeast Michigan and had attended class before the rampage, Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe said. The teen is on suicide watch and is<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/11/30/oxford-high-school-shooting/#link-IIFUW7RN7VFCXJ6L6GGXXVY4KU" target=_blank> not talking to authorities</a>, leaving his motives unclear, officials <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/11/30/oxford-high-school-shooting/#link-2BQMBC5SO5A7HMXGURC2XXYYLU" target=_blank>said</a> late Tuesday night.

Authorities identified the students who were killed as 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, 16-year-old Tate Myre and 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin.

Three more students, two girls and a boy, were in critical condition Tuesday evening. Another was in serious condition, three others were stable and a 47-year-old teacher was released from the hospital.

The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/11/30/oxford-high-school-shooting/#link-IIFUW7RN7VFCXJ6L6GGXXVY4KU" target=_blank>semiautomatic handgun the suspect allegedly used</a> was purchased by his father four days before, authorities said.

School administrators<a href="https://oxfordhigh.oxfordschools.org/parents___students/building_communications/november_12__concerns_and_rumors" target=_blank> said earlier this month</a> that they investigated and debunked rumors swirling about threats to campus safety. McCabe said authorities were not aware of warning signs, urging caution toward claims on social media.

Several leaders, including President Biden and Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D), who represents the district where the high school is located, expressed sadness and outrage.

In the five minutes after the shooter  opened fire, three students were killed and eight were injured, police say.

Authorities identified the dead as 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin and 16-year-old Tate Myre.

The injured — mostly students between the ages of 14 and 17 — were taken to several hospitals in the area, including McLaren Lapeer, McLaren Oakland and St. Joseph Mercy Oakland. A 47-year-old teacher sustained an injury to the left shoulder that “appears to be a grazing wound,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in a news conference Tuesday.

Three students — two girls and one boy — are in critical condition after sustaining gunshot wounds. One of them, a 14-year-old girl, was shot in the neck and chest, and is on a ventilator in a pediatric intensive care unit.

“It’s looking very tough for this young girl,” Bouchard said.

A 14-year-old boy with gunshot wounds in the head and jaw is in serious condition.

Three other victims — a 17-year-old girl, a 17-year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy — are in stable condition.

Multiple people were hurt as they rushed out of the school, Bouchard said. Their injuries were not life-threatening, and most were treated at a staging area and released.

The shooting, Bouchard said, has not left anyone in the community untouched. One deputy transported Myre by patrol car, and the teen died on the way to the hospital. One of those killed also was a relative of a dispatcher.

“This touches us all personally and deeply and will for a long time,” Bouchard said. “This wound will never go away.”

María Luisa Paúl

Tate Myre, one of the students killed Tuesday, was an outstanding athlete who joined the varsity football team as a freshman, said former teammate Drake Biggie.

By Tuesday evening, Biggie’s <a href="https://www.change.org/p/oxford-high-school?recruiter=1237882428&recruited_by_id=e032bbf0-522d-11ec-94ad-33977e794f34&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_content=cl_sharecopy_31527243_en-US%3A7">petition</a> to rename the high school’s Wildcat Stadium in Myre’s honor had gained thousands of signatures. Biggie, who grew up with Myre, called the 16-year-old “the face of our football team.”

“Everyone wanted to talk to Tate, everyone wanted to be around Tate,” said Biggie, a college student and recent graduate of the high school. He said Myre won widespread respect as someone who worked hard and “got the job done.”

He said he knew Myre his whole life. Their families were close and went camping together.

“At first it was just a shock,” Biggie said of Myre’s death. “It was almost like, this isn’t real. At first you kind of think it’s a joke, because you never really think it could happen in your hometown.”

Myre died as a deputy tried to transport him to a hospital, officials said.

“The deputy saw that there was such a grievous wound that there was no time to wait and tried to load him in the car to get them as fast as he could to a hospital,” said Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard.

Officials identified the other students killed as 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana and 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin.

Hannah Knowles

Meryl Kornfield

Authorities said Tuesday evening that they cannot identify the 15-year-old who opened fire at his high school because he has not been charged as an adult.

The suspect, who was not injured, is in youth detention and on suicide watch in a special cell, officials said at a late-night news conference. He has not been talking, leaving his motives unclear, said Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard.

Officials said they searched the suspect’s home and seized his phone. Law enforcement caught him coming down a hall — he put his hands up — and took a 9mm pistol that had seven rounds left, Bouchard said. Canines alerted to a bag but did not find anything further.

“It’s my understanding again that this was a recent weapon purchase, that he had been shooting with it and had posted pictures of a target and the weapon,” Bouchard said. He said the suspect’s father bought the gun days earlier.

The sheriff said law enforcement heard that the shooter tried to get into barricaded rooms by pretending to be an officer — something potentially captured on video that circulated Tuesday. But he emphasized that authorities are still investigating and have a “herculean task” ahead. It will take hundreds of hours just to sift through video, he said.

Addressing rumors that officials missed warning signs, Bouchard said, “None of that came to us prior to today.” He said there is no indication the shooter had “problems” or was disciplined at school.

“Call us if there’s anybody talking about things, posting about things, writing, anything,” he urged the community. “You need to let authorities know so there can be intervention.”

“This kind of thing can happen anywhere, and sadly it happened even in a sweet, quiet community like Oxford. … No one is immune,” he added.

The semiautomatic handgun the 15-year-old shooting suspect used was purchased by his father four days before, authorities said Tuesday night.

The suspect had posted photos of the firearm, a 9mm Sig Sauer pistol, on social media before the shooting, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said at a news conference, sharing the first details about the weapon used in the deadly shooting. Bouchard said deputies were still processing the scene, and that they knew of three 15-round magazines but had found just two so far.

It remains unclear how the shooter obtained the gun and brought it into the school. Bouchard said police dogs found a backpack authorities believed the gun may have been in.

“More than likely the gun was in there,” Bouchard said.

The gun was still loaded when authorities took the weapon from the shooter, the sheriff added.

“I believe that interrupted what could have been seven more victims,” he said.

According to Michigan gun laws, it would be illegal for someone younger than 18 to possess a gun in public in the state. In schools, it is illegal to carry a concealed gun, and some school districts in the state also ban open carry.

According to Giffords Law Center, a gun violence prevention group that publishes information about gun laws, Michigan ranks 20th in the nation for states with the strongest gun laws.

“Michigan laws are certainly not the weakest in the country, but they could be a lot stronger,” Allison Anderman, the center’s senior counsel, said in an interview Tuesday night.

Anderman noted that school shootings are still exceptionally rare compared with other types of shootings. Yet in most school shootings, the weapon is a firearm left unsecured in the home.

Since 2018, when 17 people were killed during a shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school, many states have passed legislation making it more difficult for children to access firearms.

Eleven states have enacted laws concerning firearm-locking devices, including Michigan, in an attempt to reduce the risk of guns falling into the hands of children or criminals, according to <a href="https://giffords.org/lawcenter/gun-laws/policy-areas/child-consumer-safety/safe-storage/" target=_blank>Giffords Law Center.</a> Michigan does not require firearm owners to lock their weapons.

OXFORD, Mich. — After a bullet came through the door of a classroom, Oxford High School senior Kristina Myers said she began handing out calculators to her AP statistics classmates — the only makeshift weapon that could be thrown at the gunman should the door open.

Desks were stacked high in front of the door. But by then, Myers was resigned to the possibility that her life might end.

“I had accepted it,” she said. “If my teacher didn’t close the door when she did, our class would have been dead. I know that for a fact.”

Myers is one of many Oxford High School students tormented by “what ifs” in the aftermath of a shooting that rocked an otherwise quiet Michigan town.

“If I had eaten my lunch a little faster, I could have died,” said senior Drew Raab, adding that he had just passed by the area where the shooting began.

Freshman Julia Begley said she was in the hallway nearby when the shooting began. She fumbled with the knobs on locked classroom doors. Her friend pulled her into the bathroom, where she crouched down by the toilet with other students.

“I was just very confused and really anxious, just panicking,” she said. “I was holding my friend’s hand with one hand. With the other I was holding the girl next to me. I didn’t know her, but it felt like I’d known her a long time.”

Nolan Mitteer, a sophomore, said something felt off that morning, but he didn’t know why. As he was getting ready for his fifth-period engineering class, he heard the first shot.

“I thought it was just someone hitting a locker or just kids messing around,” he said. “My teacher told us to go into lockdown, so we hid behind the teacher’s desk away from the doors.”

Senior Callum Gross, who had just entered his calculus class when the shooting began, said “there are so many heroic stories to be told” — for example, a student was the first to make a 911 call when the gunman began shooting.

Gross said there were four loud bangs, and the classroom went into lockdown. He said the shooter tried to enter their room but couldn’t get in.

“After that we could hear screaming,” he said. “People were screaming for help. But there was nothing we could do.”

Lindsay Kalter

Less than three weeks before the shooting at Oxford High School, the school administration sent a letter to parents addressing security concerns.

“Student interpretations of social media posts and false information have exacerbated the overall concern,” the Nov. 12 <a href="https://oxfordhigh.oxfordschools.org/parents___students/building_communications/november_12__concerns_and_rumors" target=_blank>letter</a> reads. “We want our parents and students to know there has been no threat to our building nor our students.”

Rumors about potential violence began circulating among students in the weeks leading up to the shooting, according to the letter — some sparked by a vandalism incident in which staff discovered a severed deer head and graffiti made with red acrylic paint inside a courtyard before school began. In another <a href="https://oxfordhigh.oxfordschools.org/parents___students/building_communications/november_4__o_h_s_incident_-_no_threat_on_campus" target=_blank>letter</a> sent to parents on Nov. 4, the school said the graffiti “did not contain any threats or any concerning messages.” A suspect — a different person than the one in the shooting — was then located by the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.

Treshan Bryant, a senior at Oxford High School, said he heard rumors this month that someone was “going to shoot up the school.”

Oxford High School said it had found no credible concern from its investigation, adding that it had “numerous highly-trained professionals who work to keep our building safe and secure.” But as Tuesday’s shooting unfolded, some began to wonder whether the events were related.

Robin Redding, Bryant’s mother, wondered whether officials had brushed off warning signs. Her son started staying home from school on days when he got a feeling that something bad might happen — Tuesday was one of them.

“They don’t listen,” she said of school officials. “You have to pay these kids some attention, listen when they’re saying something. … And they don’t.”

Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe expressed caution over reports on social media, emphasizing that such sources were not always credible.

“We’re hearing all kinds of rumors about warning signs. … We are not aware of any warnings,” McCabe said Tuesday during a news conference. “I can tell you, we work very closely with Tim Throne, the superintendent, and the principal of this school. If there were warnings, I’ve got to believe they would have told us.”

McCabe said officials are conducting an investigation into the motive of the shooting and the rumors.

“Ultimately, we’ll get to the bottom of this,” he said.

Hannah Knowles contributed to this report.

President Biden joined a growing group of leaders who are disheartened by the Michigan school shooting, which took the lives of three teens.

“My heart goes out to the families enduring the unimaginable grief of losing their loved one,” he said before his remarks in Minnesota.

The three teenagers who died will be mourned with lowered U.S. and state flags on state grounds and across all public buildings at the order of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D).

Whitmer <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WNEMTV5/videos/322316709729948" target=_blank>said in a news conference</a> Tuesday evening that the loss of the three students, who haven’t been named yet by authorities, “is a parent’s worst nightmare.”

“This is an unimaginable tragedy,” she said. “I hope that we can all rise to the occasion and wrap our arms around the families, the affected children and school personnel and this community.”

Whitmer told reporters that she thinks it’s too soon to talk about policy changes, though she did call the misfortune “a uniquely American problem that we need to address.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) called the shooting “devastating” in a <a href="https://twitter.com/RepRashida/status/1465792719113043969" target=_blank>statement on Twitter</a>.

“This impacts all of us, and as a mother of a 16-year-old, I can’t imagine the horror of this,” she said.

Michigan State Sen. Rosemary Bayer (D), who represents Oakland County, said she was “absolutely horrified” by the shooting.

“On top of an already difficult situation with the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, our students now have to face this traumatic situation in a place that is supposed to be a safe space for learning and growth,” she <a href="https://twitter.com/rosemarybayer/status/1465769592572178432" target=_blank>said in a statement</a>.

Lateshia Beachum

School Shooting Michigan

Two girls, one 17 and one 14, and a 16-year-old boy were killed in Tuesday’s mass shooting at Oxford High School, officials said, as the number of wounded rose to eight.

Of those hurt, two are in surgery, and their conditions are unclear, Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe said at an evening news conference. Six others who suffered injuries are in stable condition. Previously authorities said three were dead and six were wounded.

A 15-year-old suspect is in custody. McCabe said authorities “don’t have a motive at this point” and pushed back on claims circulating online that there were warning signs leading up to the violence.

“We are not aware of any warnings,” McCabe said, urging people not to believe everything they see on social media — including a claim that the shooter told people not to go to school. He also defended the school’s security protocols as some parents said the campus should have had metal detectors.

Speaking at the 5 p.m. news conference, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) called the shooting every parent’s worst nightmare, her voice breaking.

She said it was too early to talk about any policy changes that the tragedy should spur — but suggested that it was part of a grim pattern.

“This is a uniquely American problem that we need to address,” Whitmer said.

Another news conference is expected at 10 p.m. McCabe said police are still “actively working” the scene. Officials have done three sweeps of the high school to check for other victims, he said, and relatives of all three people killed have been notified. A deputy is assigned to each family.

McCabe said the suspect’s parents met with him and would not let their son speak about the incident.

He also said there is no indication that the suspect was bullied.

McCabe said that 1,800 students attend the high school and that “we have to interview each and every one” to see if they have any information. He also invited tips from the public.

APTOPIX School Shooting Michigan

The 15-year-old shooter is a sophomore at Oxford High School, about 40 miles north of Detroit, Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe said in a brief news conference Tuesday afternoon. Officers took the suspect into custody around 1 p.m., a few minutes after the first 911 calls came in.

They recovered a semiautomatic handgun, McCabe said, and they don’t yet know what motivated the attack.

“It’s a very tragic situation,” he said.

The suspect, who has not been named publicly, fired 15 to 20 shots, police said, and 911 dispatchers were flooded with more than 100 calls about the incident. Officers arrived on the scene within minutes and confronted the gunman, who McCabe said “did not give us any resistance as he was taken into custody.” He has “invoked his right not to speak” and asked for an attorney, McCabe added.

“You never want to prepare for something like this, but you have to,” he said.

“Of course I’m shocked,” said Tim Throne, Oxford community schools superintendent. “It’s devastating.”

In the news conference hours after the shooting, McCabe said school staff “did everything right” in preparing for a possible active-shooter situation. He would not say whether the suspect had made threats leading up to the shooting but said the possibility is part of the police investigation.

Reis Thebault

School shootings virtually disappeared during a stretch of the pandemic, when students were learning online from home. But violence on school grounds <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/10/26/schools-violence-teachers-guns-fights/?itid=lk_inline_manual_111">has soared this fall</a>, as some students return to campuses emotionally damaged and unable to conform to expected behaviors, having lost the ability to navigate conflicts with other students and teachers.

Teachers and school administrators across the country have reported a rise in everything from minor misbehavior to fighting in the hallways to gun-related incidents. Mass shootings like the one in Michigan on Tuesday remain far less common.

Everytown for Gun Safety, an advocacy group, reports that nationally in 2021, there have been at least 138 incidents of gunfire on school grounds, resulting in 28 deaths and 80 injuries. Of those, 89 incidents occurred this fall, nearly triple the previous high of 33 during the same period.

The Center for Homeland Defense and Security, which maintains a database of K-12 school shootings, has totaled 219 incidents of gunfire on school grounds this calendar year, not counting the Michigan incident. Of those, just eight were active shooters — the sort of school shooting that comes to mind for many people. That number is in line with data from past years.

But the 211 other incidents of gunfire have soared far above past years. That is more than quadruple most years since 1970 and almost double the prior three years, said David Riedman, lead researcher on the K-12 School Shooting Database.

“There are a lot of tensions that kind of boiled while students were all virtual and once they were back together in the schools a lot of that has turned into physical altercations,” he said.

Laura Meckler

University of California at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism

Miami University, BA in Journalism and Interdisciplinary Studies

Reis Thebault reports on the American West Coast from Los Angeles for The Washington Post. He joined The Post in 2018 and has covered national breaking news, European politics and D.C. city hall. He previously worked on the local desks of the Boston Globe and the Columbus Dispatch.

Stanford University, BA in English

Hannah Knowles is a national politics reporter covering campaigns at The Washington Post. She previously reported for The Post's general assignment desk.

2016 Oklahoma Book Award

2017 American Meteorological Society Lewis J. Batten Award for Distinguished Reporting

2017 Deadline Club Award for Feature Photography

2021 World Press Photo Interactive of the Year

The Mercy of the Sky

University of Oklahoma

Holly Bailey is a national correspondent for The Washington Post based in Atlanta and covering the South. She was previously based in Minneapolis, where she covered the Upper Midwest. She joined The Post in 2019 as a national political reporter covering the 2020 presidential campaign.

Holly Bailey

FSNE Journalism Contest, second place for news reporting (Spanish language), Florida Society of News Editors, 2020

ICPA Contest, second place for best podcast, Indiana Collegiate Press Association, 2021

R.V. Ley Journalism Award, for outstanding achievement and exceptional promise, John W. Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics and Democracy, 2021

University of Notre Dame, BA in political science and economics

María Luisa Paúl is a reporter on The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. She joined The Post as an intern on the General Assignment desk and has previously reported at the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald. 


S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University, M.A.

Lateshia Beachum is a reporter covering Prince George's County. She joined The Washington Post as a general assignment reporter in 2019. She previously worked for The Center for Public Integrity. 

Finalist, Pulitzer Prize for public service (2020)

Winner, Gerald Loeb Award for beat reporting (2021) 

Finalist, Pulitzer Prize for public service (2023)

University of Florida, BS in Journalism

Meryl Kornfield is a staff writer on the Politics desk of The Washington Post.

Nieman Fellowship, Harvard University, 2003-2004

Livingston Award for National Reporting, 1999

First place, Shutdown “Feddie,” for coverage of the government shutdown, National Press Foundation (team award), 2014

First place, series, North American Agricultural Journalists (team award), 2008

Third place, beat reporting, Association of Health Care Journalists, 2007

George Polk Award for Justice Reporting for “George Floyd’s America," 2021 (team award)

Education Writers Association, finalist, beat reporting; finalist, feature writing, 2021

Educations Writers Association, finalist, beat reporting, 2020

DREAM TOWN: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity

Washington University in St. Louis, A.B. in political science and international development

Laura Meckler covers the news, politics and people shaping American schools. She previously reported on the White House, presidential politics and immigration for the Wall Street Journal, as well as on health and social policy for the Associated Press. She is author of DREAM TOWN: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity, about her hometown.

Oxford High School shooting live updates Student kills three, injures eight, police say

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