Teen killed father before opening fire at South Carolina elementary school: police

A 14-year-old South Carolina boy shot and killed his father, then drove to a nearby elementary school, where he opened fire with a handgun, wounding two children and a teacher before being tackled by a firefighter who held him for police, authorities said Wednesday.

The suspect, whose name has not been released, shot dead his 47-year-old father, then drove a pickup truck about three kilometres to Townville Elementary school, where he crashed into a fence surrounding the playground, authorities said. Police identified the deceased man as Jeffrey Osbourne.

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After the teen began shooting, volunteer firefighter Jamie Brock pinned him down while staff led children to safety inside the building. Police arrived within seven minutes of a teacher calling 911 to take the suspect into custody at the school in Anderson County, located near the Georgia state line and about 160 kilometres northeast of Atlanta.

The shooter never entered the building.

"We are heartbroken about this senseless act of violence," said Joanne Avery, superintendent of Anderson County School District 4. She cancelled classes for the rest of the week.

Authorities did not release a motive for the shooting but have ruled out terrorism or racist motives.

U.S. schools have taken added security precautions since 2012 when a gunman shot dead 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Brock, a 30-year veteran of the Townville Volunteer Fire Department, was hailed on social media as a hero and credited with preventing another school massacre.

"[He] was there in the hot scene and risked his life to mitigate this incident," Anderson County emergency services director Taylor Jones said. "He just used enough force to take him to the ground."

1 victim in critical condition

The shooting left a six-year-old boy in critical condition and undergoing surgery, Scott Stoller, Anderson County's director of emergency services, told the local newspaper, Anderson Independent Mail.

The other young male victim, also six, and a female teacher were in good condition, said Juana Slade, spokeswoman for AnMed Health Medical Center.

One student was shot in the leg and the other was shot in the foot. The teacher was shot in the shoulder.

Anderson County Sheriff's Office Captain Garland Major did not know the relationship between the shooter and those injured at the school. The suspect was home-schooled, authorities said.

Immediately after the shooting, armed officers guarded students as the school was evacuated and students were taken by bus to a nearby church, local media said. Television images showed police swarming the school, with some officers on the roof while others moved around the building.

Jamie Meredith, whose daughter is in kindergarten at Townville Elementary, told WYFF news that she panicked after getting word of the shooting. Her daughter is OK but described a scene of scared and crying children.

"I'm just scared," Meredith said through tears. "I don't even want her to go to school now."

Townville Elementary had about 300 students in its pre-kindergarten to sixth-grade classrooms last year, according to its annual state report card last spring.

The incident was the latest in a series of shootings at U.S. schools that have fuelled the debate about access to guns in America. Earlier this month, a 14-year-old girl shot and wounded a fellow student at a rural Texas high school and then died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is due to meet with law enforcement officials in the area this evening, Jones said.