|
 Sergeant David Vidaure, a spokesman for the police department in
Glendale, Arizona, said the girl had obtained the weapon from her
classmate, a 15-year-old boy, on the eve of last Friday's fatal
shooting after telling him "she needed it for protection".
The classmate obliged by providing the girl with "a family-owned
handgun, from his home, without the permission or knowledge of his
parents," Vidaure said in a statement.
Suicide is the third-leading cause of death among American youths
aged 10 to 24, resulting in 4,600 lives lost each year, and firearms
are the most common method for taking one's own life, according to
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
 The male student has been cooperating with detectives, though his
involvement will be reviewed by the Maricopa County Attorney's
Office for possible charges, Vidaure said.
Neither the two girls nor their classmate - all students at
Independence High School in Glendale - have been publicly identified
because all three are minors.
Although the precise circumstances remain under investigation,
evidence from the scene has led homicide detectives to determine one
of the girls killed the other before taking her own life, and that
no other students witnessed the shooting.
The two girls were believed to have been very close friends and
romantically involved.
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Their bodies, a suicide note and the pistol were found in a canopied
patio area near the school cafeteria after gunfire erupted shortly
after classes started, triggering a security lockdown of the campus
as police initially searched the school grounds for suspects.
No surveillance video of the incident was captured, police said.
On Tuesday, counselors and social workers were brought to the
2,000-student high school to help those returning to class for the
first time since the incident.
In a Facebook message to parents and guardians, school principal Rob
Ambrose offered condolences to the families of the two girls and
acknowledged the outpouring of community support.
(Editing by Steve Gorman and Miral Fahmy)
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