Teen kills father, opens fire on schoolyard

A 14-year-old South Carolina boy shot and killed his father then drove to an 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 on Wednesday.

The suspect, whose name has not been released, shot dead his 47-year-old father, Jeffrey DeWitt Osborne, then drove a pickup truck about 2 miles (3.2 km) to Townville Elementary school where he crashed into a fence surrounding the playground, authorities said.

After the teenager began shooting, volunteer firefighter Jamie Brock pinned him down while staff led children to safety inside the building. Police arrived within 7 minutes of a teacher calling 911 to take the suspect into custody at the school in Anderson County, located near the Georgia state line about 100 miles (160 km) northeast of Atlanta. The shooter never entered the building.

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, Connecticut.

"(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."

The shooting left a 6-year-old boy in critical condition and undergoing surgery, Scott Stoller, Anderson County's director of emergency services, told the Anderson Independent Mail.

The other boy and a female teacher were in good condition, said Juana Slade, spokeswoman for AnMed Health Medical Center. Both boys were 6 years old, the Independent Mail reported.

One male student was shot in the leg and the other boy was shot in the foot. The female teacher was shot in the shoulder, authorities said. The shooter and victims were white.

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 they were evacuated from the school and 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.