Maryland school gunman died of self-inflicted gunshot, police say

[March 27, 2018]    By Brendan O'Brien
 
 (Reuters) - A self-inflicted gunshot wound, not a bullet fired by a sheriff's deputy, killed a 17-year-old who had just shot another student at a Maryland high school last week, authorities have said.

Emergency personnel and law enforcement officers stand outside Great Mills High School following a shooting on Tuesday morning in St. Mary's County, Maryland, U.S., March 20, 2018. REUTERS/Sait Serkan Gurbuz

Austin Rollins, a student at Great Mills High School, shot Jaelynn Willey, 16, with his father's handgun in a hallway at the school last Tuesday, according to the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office.

Willey, who had been in a relationship with Rollins that had recently ended, died days later.

About three minutes after Rollins shot Willey, sheriff's deputy Blaine Gaskill fired one round at him, striking his gun. At the same time, Rollins shot himself in the head, the sheriff said in a brief statement on Monday.

Rollins was wounded and died at a hospital. Gaskill was unharmed.

Desmond Barnes, a 14-year-old student, was struck in the leg by the same bullet that hit Willey, the sheriff said. Barnes was treated at a hospital and released a day after the shooting.

Details of the shooting emerged after hundreds of thousands of people marched over the weekend to demand the U.S. government tighten gun laws.

Led by survivors of a Florida high school shooting in February that claimed 17 lives, the marchers called on lawmakers and President Donald Trump to confront the issue after decades of shooting sprees at U.S. schools and colleges .

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, editing by Larry King)

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