Missouri family pleaded to confiscate assault rifle ahead of deadly 2022 school shooting. Officers had few options

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KY3) – Orlando Harris’ family pleaded with Missouri State Police to confiscate the 19-year-old’s bulletproof vest, ammunition and an AR-15-style rifle. They knew his mental health was fragile after more than one suicide attempt.

But the best officers could hold their own against some of the majority in the country broad gun rights suggests that Harris keep his gun in the glove compartment.

Nine days later, Harris walked into his former high school in St. Louis and declared, “You will all die.”

The new 456-page police report details the efforts of Harris’ family to take his gun away in the days before he entered Central Visual Arts and Performing Arts High School on October 24, 2022, when he killed a student and a teacher and injured seven others before he was fatally shot by police.

Missouri is not part of the 21st century states with red flag laws. Red flag laws, also called extreme risk protection orders, are designed to restrict gun purchases or temporarily take away guns from people who may harm themselves or someone else.

The case shows how difficult it is for law enforcement agencies to restrict access to weapons, even if there are indications that something is very wrong.

after Army reservist killed 18 people in October 2023 in Lewiston, Maine, an investigation found missed opportunities to intervene in connection with the shooter’s mental crisis. Before the 14-year-old was charged with the above-mentioned a fatal shooting this fall at his high school in Georgiathe deputy spoke to him about the online threat and the family warned him about it “extreme emergency situation”.

The investigation The report on Harris’ case shows that he first attempted suicide in the fall of 2021, just before he was scheduled to leave for college. The disruption of the pandemic, a friend’s arrest in connection with a homicide and a car accident all may have contributed to his depression, his family and former boss told investigators.

The police report makes no mention of him attending college. Instead, he worked in the cafeteria at a senior center, where he sometimes talked to co-workers about guns.

The following August, he met with a psychiatry resident at the University of Washington and told her he was thinking about shooting people at his old school. He said these thoughts only lasted one evening and then went away, plus there was no planning and he didn’t want to do it.

But shortly thereafter, Harris began the countdown to the shooting. His plans included detailed maps of the school and a plan aimed at teachers, students and the LGBTQ community. He also planned to burn down the family home with them.

The psychiatrist prescribed medications, but Harris did not follow them. The report shows that an emergency plan has been developed.

The University of Washington did not immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Harris then stopped showing up to meetings.

On October 8, he attempted to purchase a firearm from a licensed dealer in St. Charles, Missouri, but the deal fell through. blocked through an FBI background check. The report did not explain why, and police did not respond to an email from the AP. The FBI only provided a list 12 reasons for refusal no other details.

Harris then drove to a nearby suburb on Oct. 10 to pay the man $580 in cash for the rifle used in the shooting.

Harris’ family became even more concerned on October 15, when two packages arrived from gun and ammunition suppliers. One of his sisters, Noneeka Harris, opened it and found a bulletproof vest, magazine holsters and magazines. She then searched his bedroom and found the rifle in an old TV box.

Harris’ mother, Tanya Ward, called BJC Mental Health Services and staff there “deemed the situation an immediate threat.” They advised her to take her belongings to the police and inform the officers about her son’s mental illness.

Police at the station told her she couldn’t take the gun because Harris was of legal age to possess one. They said she should go home and meet the officer there. By the time she returned, Harris was home and insisted he keep the gun.

His mother was adamant that the gun not be in the house, so the officers suggested storing it in a warehouse. The report said the officers also advised her on what steps she should take to have her son considered mentally unstable.

Since 1968, federal law has prohibited certain mentally ill people from purchasing guns, including guns that were deemed a danger to themselves or others, were committed unintentionally, or were found not guilty by reason of insanity or inability to stand trial.

Ultimately, firearms and other items were loaded into the trunk of Harris’ sister’s vehicle, including a case of ammunition that arrived the next day. She later drove her brother to a warehouse about five miles from the high school.

She told police she “knew something was going to happen.”

On October 24, shots rang out as Harris entered his former high school.

It is unclear why Harris targeted the school. An investigative report showed that a security officer remembered him as quite popular, and his primary school principal stated that he was not a victim of bullying. But as he fired at the dance class, one of the students told police she heard someone shouting, “I hate this school. I hate everyone.”

Mortally wounded Alexzandria Bell initially ran toward the entrance before collapsing to the ground, and a security guard assured the 10th-grader that help was on the way. But then she fell silent.

One class jumped out of a window to escape after their physical education teacher, 61-year-old Jean Kuczka, stood between them and Harris. Kuckza was killed.

Harris eventually made it to the third floor, hiding in the computer lab. The first officer to enter the lab had a daughter at school.

“I had everything to lose,” an officer who was one of those who opened fire recalled in a police report. He later sent a text message to his daughter saying: “I killed him.”

Harris’ sister told investigators that when she heard about the shooting, she started toward the school but then went home, waking her mother, who had been working overnight.

Harris’ mother later checked her voicemail. There was a message from the hospital asking if I still needed help with my son.

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