Education

Investigators say student killed by police outside Mount Horeb school had pointed pellet rifle

The Wisconsin Department of Justice announced a student who was killed by police outside Mount Horeb Middle School had pointed a pellet rifle at officers and refused to drop the weapon.

Associated Press

May 5, 2024 • South Central Region

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A wood sign with the address number 900 and the words Mount Horeb Middle Schools stands next to a metal park bench and in front of multiple trees on lawn between different wings of a masonry and brick building, with a sidewalk leading to glass doors at one entrance.

An entrance to the Mount Horeb Middle School is seen on an unspecified date. (Source: Mount Horeb Area School District)


AP News

MOUNT HOREB, Wis. (AP) — A student who was killed by police outside a Wisconsin school pointed a pellet rifle at officers and had refused to drop the weapon, authorities said May 4.

The state Department of Justice released few other details, three days after the shooting at Mount Horeb Middle School in Mount Horeb, 25 miles west of Madison, the Wisconsin capital.

The student, whose name and age still have not been officially released, did not get into the school. No one else was physically injured, but the school was on lockdown for hours during the incident on May 1.

Police were called around 11 a.m. that day after a caller said someone with a backpack and long gun was moving toward the school.

“Officers directed the subject to drop the weapon, but the subject did not comply,” the Department of Justice said on May 4. “The subject pointed the weapon at the officers, after which law enforcement discharged their firearms, striking the subject. Lifesaving measures were deployed but the subject died on scene.”

The weapon was described as a Ruger .177-caliber pellet rifle. The state said police at the scene were wearing body cameras.

Schools in the Mount Horeb district did not hold classes on May 2 or May 3.


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