EDITOR’S NOTES: Our sister newspaper, The Daily Herald of Everett, is at the scene. Latest reports are at www.heraldnet.com.
The Clallam Bay-Tulalip Heritage football game scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at Quil Ceda Stadium in Marysville has been canceled.
Quil Ceda Stadium is located on the Marysville Pilchuck High School campus, the scene of a deadly school shooting Friday morning.
Clallam Bay athletic director Kris Hanson confirmed that the Marysville School District, which operates the stadium, has canceled all athletic events.
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MARYSVILLE — A burst of gunfire at Marysville Pilchuck High School on Friday left two students dead, including the suspected shooter, and at least four more injured.
The shooter, a freshman athlete, took his own life after opening fire during the day’s first lunch period, Marysville police said.
Also killed was a girl who has not yet been publicly identified. Four other victims, all believed to be students, remain hospitalized: three in critical and one in serious condition.
The shooter has been identified as football player and Tulalip tribal member Jaylen Fryberg. KIRO-TV spoke with Fryberg’s uncle, who said he’s “not a monster, he is a very nice kid.”
And a Crossfit coach, Caleb Woods, also a tribal member, told KIRO that Fryberg was an ambitious young man seen by some as one of the young leaders of the Tulalip Tribes.
Earlier this month, Fryberg was voted freshman homecoming king.
He recently brought his grandmother a deer he had shot. Feeding elders wild game is an act of great cultural significance.
School officials said the high school will be closed next week.
The shooting was reported about 10:30 a.m. The school resource officer was on scene at the time and called for backup, Marysville Police Cmdr. Robb Lamoureux said.
Witnesses say the shooting happened during first lunch. There was a burst of gunfire, a pause, then a final shot.
Marysville Police Chief Rick Smith told reporters late Friday he would not talk about the shooter, including any information about his identity or possible motive. Nor would he discuss rumors that a school staffer tried to intervene.
Investigators also declined to talk about the weapon used other than to say that it had been legally acquired.
Another police briefing was scheduled for 9 p.m.
Speaking to the community, Smith said, “We care about you. We love you. We’re going to be there for you.”
Providence Regional Medical Center Everett initially received all of the patients, but two boys, 14 and 15, were transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Two girls and the 15-year-old boy had serious head wounds and underwent surgery at Providence. The 14-year-old boy at Harborview had a less-severe jaw injury but still was in serious condition, officials said.
“We had dreaded this day in our community, but we were prepared to handle these kids when they came,” said Dr. Joanne Roberts, the chief medical officer at Providence.
Approximately 20 doctors responded at Providence. The team included two heart surgeons, two neurosurgeons, a chest surgeon, two trauma surgeons, the vascular surgeon and 12 emergency room physicians. Four trauma rooms were used to aid the victims.
Police, who had trained at Marysville Pilchuck before, first swept the campus looking for threats before conducting a separate, slower and more thorough search to rule out the possibility of any additional shooters. They read names of those found safe over their emergency radios.
As of midafternoon Friday, investigators were not sharing information about the weapon used by the shooter, the possible motive or whether there was any relationship between him and the victims. There was plenty of speculation on social media, but those responsible for the investigation are careful to note it’s too soon to draw fast and hard conclusions.
The Snohomish County Multiple Agency Response Team — a cadre of the best homicide detectives drawn from police departments throughout the county — is conducting the witness interviews, Lamoreaux said.
They are being joined by investigators from the Washington State Patrol, FBI and other federal agents. Work at the scene was expected to continue all night, Snohomish County Sheriff Ty Trenary said.
Christine Wagner, a sophomore who was in the cafeteria, said she heard what sounded like seven to 10 shots, then a pause, then a final gunshot.
“Everyone jumped under the tables,” she said.
After the gunfire stopped, people just ran, she said.
Wagner rushed from the cafeteria and climbed one of the school’s fences, cutting one of her hands. She said one of her friends saw people hit by bullets. The gunman was described as wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt.
In the church parking lot where families were being reunited, a tearful Tami Van Dalen gave her daughter, Morgan, a long embrace. Morgan and her best friend, Madison McKee, were sharing a chicken burger three tables away from the shooting.
“We heard like a pop,” Morgan said. “Some people thought it was a firecracker. I thought it was a plastic baggie. We all ran out. We ran to a classroom.”
She told a teacher that it was a shooting, not a drill.
“People were falling over each other to get out, and you could hear glass breaking,” she said. “It was so scary. We looked and we just booked it.”
For the Langstraat family, Friday’s shooting was just one more traumatic event. Last week, their house in Marysville was hit by five bullets when a Granite Falls man went on a shooting rampage that spanned three cities.
Michelle Langstraat, a mental-health therapist, was in a session with a client when her elder son, Wyatt, 17, called her about the shooting. Wyatt attends classes at Marysville Pilchuck and Everett Community College, and was in Everett at the time.
Wyatt’s brother, Noah, 15, was in the cafeteria drinking Gatorade when the shooting began.
In the commotion he left behind his cellphone and was unable to contact his mother. It was an agonizing hour of waiting.
“I heard two loud shots and then a slight pause, and then five or six others,” Noah said. “I got on the ground. I knew I had to stay on the ground.”
Noah and his friends pressed close to each other and waited until they felt it was safe to leave the cafeteria.
Sophomore Skylar van der Putten was in another cafeteria on the high school campus when the shooting occurred. He said he is not afraid to return to school when it reopens.
“I have no idea why he did it,” he said. “It is one kid acting on one weird emotion. He shouldn’t have had access to the gun.”
Michael Dufour, 17, a senior, was painting a bridge and eating a ham sandwich in the back room of an art class. He initially thought the shooting was just a drill.
Like many students, Dufour said the tragedy should not reflect on his school.
“Our school is usually really safe. It is just one of those freak things that happen,” he said. “I just wish it didn’t happen here.”
For his mother, Raquel Dufour, news of the shooting meant leaving work in Lynnwood to search for her son.
“The whole time I’m thinking, ‘Just let me get to my child,’” she said. “As a parent, you just have to see them for yourself. You just have to hold them. I don’t ever want to got through this again.”
Another parent, Jery Holston, initially waited outside the Marysville fire station just down the street from the high school. He was on the phone with his daughter, a senior, and son, a freshman.
His son called him and said he had taken cover behind a dirt pile near the football stadium.
“My heart dropped in my stomach,” Holston said.
His daughter called him to report that she, too, was OK.
“I’m right up the road here,” he told her.
Both asked him to come pick them up.
Arthur White was at a house across from school when the incident began. He could not believe the number of police cars that converged on the scene or how fast they were driving.
“It just kept coming,” White said. “I’ve never seen so many police in my life.”
Sheena Nguyen, Christine Wagner’s cousin, also raced to the school. When she saw the girl she wrapped her in a big hug.
“Once they heard the shots they just ran. They didn’t even look back,” she said.
Sophomore Jordan Reynolds and her mother, Kim, comforted each other Friday afternoon at the Living Room Coffee House on State Avenue. Kim and her husband Mike are pastors at Hillside church that meets at the coffee house, which they own.
Jordan was in the cafeteria when she heard a pop and saw people running. She stayed with others who hid under the tables. Someone pulled the fire alarm.
Then a police officer ran in and told them to leave.
“As I got up, I could see everything,” she said. “It was horrible. I’ll never forget that. After I’d seen everything, I just started running.”
Jordan found a classroom without windows to hide. About 30 kids were crammed inside, she said. Many of them knew the shooter and the victims.
Time blurred, but after awhile, a police officer knocked on the door. He led them off campus through a hole in a fence.
As Jordan talked, her mother started to cry. The two paused to hug.
Kim said: “I’m so sorry baby girl.”
Jordan told her: “It’s OK, Mom, it’s not your fault.”
All students were being taken to Shoultes Christian Assembly at 116th Street NE and 51st Avenue NE. Yellow school buses pulled up to where a crowd of parents waited for children to unload. After only a short hug, students walked under police tape and into the church to be officially accounted for before being released to their parents.
The church parking lot was full of cars, people, and the sounds of sobbing. The American Red Cross also was on scene offering assistance.
All after-school activities across the district were canceled Friday.
Marysville school officials released this statement:
“We want to extend our thoughts and prayers to the families involved in this tragedy. When something happens to one of our children, it happens to all of us. We are working closely with law enforcement. Our thoughts are with all students, families, staff, and our communities during this time.”
Mayor Jon Nehring spoke during a midafternoon press briefing. The Tulalip Tribes also were with him, he said.
“We are deeply saddened … our priority right now is to stand with the families,” Nehring said.
Nehring said he was headed back into the police command post after the briefing.
“All of us are coming together, and our thoughts and prayers are with everybody,” the mayor said. “Really right now the priority is taking care of the families.”
Tulalip Tribal Chairman Herman Williams issued a statement Friday:
“I am deeply saddened by the terrible tragedy in our local school district. Our prayers go out to the families and the entire community. Our first priority is to support the families and the children of those involved. Our community is reeling from this experience, so we ask that the media and the public honor the families and our children in this time of grief.
“Sadly, we are now experiencing what has become a national trend, which we, as a society, must address. These are our children. They are suffering, and their lives will be forever changed. The fact that tribal members were involved makes it extremely hard to respond to any inquiries until we are aware of all the circumstances. As chairman, I ask everyone to pray for the children and families of those involved.”
Meanwhile, schools throughout the county were working on providing counselors and police resources both to their own campuses and offering to send more folks to Marysville to help.
There are 12,000 students in the Marysville district. Marysville is the second largest city in Snohomish County, after Everett.
The Grove Church in Marysville posted on Facebook that it will host a vigil at 6:30 p.m. Friday at 7405 Grove Street. “Join us all day and this evening as we pray for our community,” the church posted.
A vigil also was planned from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Friday at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, 4312 84th St. NE, Marysville.
Living Room Coffee House, 1212 State Ave., also will be open from 6 to 9 tonight for anyone who needs somewhere to go to talk and pray.
This is not the first time that violence has erupted in a Snohomish County school.
Friday was the third anniversary of an attack by a troubled 15-year-old student stabbed on two Snohomish High School classmates. Prior to the Oct. 24, 2011, attack, the girl had made threats to other students and was treated for mental illness.
April Lutz was stabbed more than a dozen times and nearly died from a knife wound to the chest. Her friend Bekah Staudacher received stab wounds to her arm and back trying to fend off the attack.
Earlier this year, a jury found that the high school failed to protect the girls and ordered it to pay $1.3 million to the victims. The attacker is serving a 13-year sentence.
In Marysville on Friday, there was deep disbelief.
Hailee Simenson, a junior cheerleader, was in Spanish class when a classmate received a text about the cafeteria shooting. She said she was shocked to learn the shooter’s identity.
“He just never seemed like someone who could do something like that,” she said. “He was a real nice guy. It caught me by surprise and I think it caught a lot of people by surprise.”
Her father, Dan Simenson, said he is thankful for technology. He quickly received texts from Hailee and her older brother, Spencer, confirming they weren’t hurt.
He tempered his immediate relief with long-term concern.
“It is going to be tough on these kids,” he said. “I think that’s the toughest part for me. They will have to live with it forever.”
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Reporters Dan Catchpole and Diana Hefley contributed to this report.
