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Another girl is accused of wounding classmate with whom she feuded
Thursday, March 08, 2001
By Dan Lewerenz, The Associated Press
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. -- A 14-year-old girl shot a female classmate in the shoulder yesterday in the cafeteria of their Catholic school but dropped the gun at the urging of another student, authorities said.
A witness said the girl, identified as eighth-grader Elizabeth Bush, fired at the floor and the bullet ricocheted and hit Kimberly Marchese, a classmate she had feuded with in the past.
"This is a situation of a student who was upset with another student," police officer David Ritter said. "This is not a random act of violence, and, as far as I understand, there are no other targets for this violence."
Investigators described Bush as a shy teenager who transferred from public school a year ago because of harassment only to face more clashes with her new classmates, Reuters reported.
The shooting in the cafeteria at Bishop Neumann Junior-Senior High, occurred around noon, where about 120 students were at lunch. Bishop Neumann has about 230 students in grades seven through 12. Williamsport, home of the Little League World Series, is in central Pennsylvania, about 160 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
Police said freshman Brent Paucke, 14, was able to persuade the girl to drop the gun. Paucke said he ducked under a lunchroom table when the girl came in screaming and firing two shots, but then recognized her from his school bus.
"She was saying, 'I don't want to live. I should just commit suicide right here.' And she pointed the gun at her head," Paucke said. "I got up and started talking to her. I didn't want anyone to get hurt."
Paucke said the girl pointed the gun at him from about five feet away, and his principal told him to back away. But he said he kept talking because he feared more people would be hurt.
"You could tell she was really mad and she looked like she was about to go off on everybody," Paucke said. He said the girl eventually placed the gun on the floor and he kicked it away.
Ritter called Paucke "very courageous." "We were very proud that a student would take such a serious risk," Ritter said.
Freshman Andrew Miller, 16, said the girl's second shot had hit the victim.
"I saw her holding a gun, but I didn't really know it was a gun," he said. "She told everyone to get down. She fired towards the ceiling, then fired into the ground, which ricocheted and hit the girl in the shoulder."
Marchese, 13, was in stable condition at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, authorities said.
The shooting suspect was in police custody within four minutes, Ritter said. The girl in custody was being questioned and police said they did not yet know where she got the gun.
Authorities would not say if they planned to charge the girl as an adult, but said they would need to petition a court before they could do so.
After the shooting, all students at the school were taken to the auditorium and patted down by police in a search for weapons, Lycoming County District Attorney Thomas Marino said. Students were later taken to a nearby school for questioning, he said.
The violence came two days after two people were killed and 13 wounded in a high school shooting in Santee, Calif. A ninth-grader was arrested. Santana students returned to the campus yesterday, with counselors available in each classroom.