Update to the Ingraham High Shooting; What Happened
There are court documents, 911 calls (that name the shooter) and SPS video (with no audio) that give an account of the event.
From the court documents, there's a timeline of events that cumulated in the shooting. From KIRO 7:
It was reported to the Snohomish County Sheriff's department as "lost."
Five students, including the two accused suspects, were involved in that fight, which allegedly started because the victim and two others wanted the gun that the suspects had brought to school.
Prosecutors are recommending that he be charged as an adult but, ultimately, that will be up to a judge.
The other suspect, a 15-year old, has been one lessor charge and one felony charge and is to remain as a juvenile in the case.
Here's added detail from the Seattle Times:
Soon after, the 14-year-old was allowed a bathroom break and was “visibly agitated” when he returned to class, say the charges, adding the teacher denied the teen’s second request for a bathroom break a few minutes later. When class ended, the 14-year-old was even more agitated and the teacher saw him punch a fist into his palm, prompting her to report her concerns to school security at 9:35 a.m., according to charging papers.
About 10 minutes later, six teens — the 17-year-old and two friends and the 14-year-old and two friends — squared off in a bathroom and fought over the gun, which one of the 14-year-old’s friends had brought to school, charges say. During the scuffle, the 14-year-old’s cellphone may have been taken by one of the others.
After the fight, the 14-year-old and his friends left the bathroom first and the 17-year-old can be seen in the video footage laughing at them as they left the area, according to the charges.
That’s when the 14-year-old pulled a gun from his backpack and shot the 17-year-old from behind and continued to shoot after the older teen fell to the floor, the charges say. Other students in the hallway “immediately ducked and ran,” including the second 17-year-old student who was shot at, say the charges.
The shooter then ran from the school, still with the gun in his hand while the 15-year old left in another direction. Police found the students on a Metro bus with the gun in the 15-year old's backpack.
Obviously, one good question is, what did school security do once the teacher reported her concerns?
One oddity? Naming the victim. Here's what the Seattle Times learned:
Scientifically? Isn't that usually for extreme cases like a burned body? His parents/guardian can't be called in to identify him? I feel like I'm missing a beat.
(Editor's note: indeed, I missed something. The victim was shot multiple times with one shot behind his ear which likely came out his face. Very sad.)
Also, today students across the district walked out of school in the morning to protest gun violence. Quite a number showed up at City Hall to demand action from the Mayor and the City Council. The Council suspended its meeting to go and listen to the students.
From The Stranger's Hannah Krieg who was at City Hall via Twitter:
Council president Debora Juarez welcomes the protestors to City Hall: “You have every right to be angry. We have failed you.” She said the council has tried, passed laws, but it’s not enough.
Central Staff just announced that Mosqueda’s balancing package invests $1 million to expand mental health services in schools. Ingraham students and the Seattle Student Union demand $9 million.
That announcement from central staff is actually $1.5 million in 2023 and then another $1.5 million in 2024. There's about 9 mil each year for these school mental health clinics but Mosqueda only knows that for sure $1.5 mil will go to counselors each year.
Just to note, just a couple of weeks ago, the Board okayed the district to take $1.8M from the BTA IV levy to fund new cars. I can appreciate how aging cars can be a worry; I'm driving a 2003 car. But $1.8M?
Approval of use of Capital Fund excess resources from BTA IV to purchase maintenance fleet vehicles and auto repair shop equipment.
Voters were not told funds for buildings would be used for this purpose but the district found a way.
Current state budget language allows the district the ability to use available capital funds to purchase maintenance vehicles during the fiscal year 2021-22 and fiscal year 2022-23 school years, after which, the opportunity to use a source other than the general fund may no longer be available.
Interesting that Board President Brandon Hersey and the Superintendent say that "student safety is the first priority" and that SOFG puts the focus on students.
How does buying new cars fit those descriptions?
Comments
Thanks for the summary Melissa.
northender
ingraham is going to have a hard time healing from horrific chain of events.
Ebenezer Haile was killed during a shooting on Nov. 8 at the high school.
A victim advocate for Haile's family spoke about him in court Tuesday as the 14-year-old accused shooter and his 15-year-old accomplice were arraigned. Both teens remain in custody.
"He loved everyone and was kind to everyone, and in his loving nature would bring friends over," the victim advocate said reading statements from Haile's family. "I don’t feel safe for myself or my family and am grieving for my nephew. We need justice for my nephew."
Court documents released Monday described how a bathroom fight over a gun between two groups of teenagers led to a 14-year-old boy shooting and killing Haile.
Sad
SEATTLE, Wash. — Court documents released Monday describe how a bathroom fight over a gun between two groups of teenagers led to the deadly shooting at Ingraham High School on Nov. 8, 2022.
The teens were fighting because the boy who was shot knew the accused shooter had brought a gun to school and he wanted it, according to court documents.
The accused shooter was charged Monday with murder, assault, and unlawful possession of a firearm. The teen's accomplice was also charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and rendering criminal assistance.
Sad
Why did the 17 year old victim know the 14 year old had a gun in the first place?
Why were they all in the bathroom - was it coincidence, or did one group follow the other group in? Was it some kind of meeting, or just a fluke?
Why did the 17 year old victim want the gun from the alleged 14 year old possessor of the gun?
Why did the 14 year old choose to bring the gun to school in the first place? Fear? Braggadocio? To sell? To get it out of his household to protect the members of his household? To commit violence at school?
The "fight" in the bathroom: was it actually physical? Punches thrown? Or was it strictly verbal? Was there shoving? Who shoved whom?
How many kids were in the bathroom at the time? The 14 year old and his 15 year old alleged accomplice, the 17 year old victim and any of his companions?
The witness is reported to have said they heard the victim saying that they 14 year old would not shoot the gun, what is the context around this alleged utterance? Was he taunting the alleged shooter?
Did the 17 year old and the 14 year old have a 'history'?
And the most important question I have is: WHO IS THE LEGAL OWNER OF THE GUN? Where did this boy get the gun and ammunition from? Was this a legally owned firearm?
This is so utterly incomprehensible and so so sad. A child allegedly shooting another child, all during school, in school. Beyond horrific.
Sad
If the boys in this altercation (both victim & friends and attacker & friends) had had DBT education so they knew how to control their emotions and not escalate a situation of conflict, this tragedy might have been prevented. (School counselors would be involved in teaching DBT if it was adopted by the district.)
- ML Mama / Ingraham parent
"He loved everyone and was kind to everyone, and in his loving nature would bring friends over," the victim advocate said reading statements from Haile's family."
About the 15-year old:
"Defense attorney Mark Bradley argued for the 15-year-old’s release, telling the judge the boy has no criminal history and would be under close supervision by his parents. The boy’s parents said the family recently moved to Seattle from Auburn.
“He’s never been in trouble. He’s a good kid,” the boy’s mother said in court."
It's important to not label kids especially in a negative light. However, I will gently point out - as someone who has been a volunteer in schools for decades. - that kids do not always show all sides of themselves to their parents. That kids, as they interact with peers, do sometimes try on new personas.
From the details of this incident, it looks like all three boys had negative interaction with each other that terrible day. That for whatever reason, the 14-year got a gun (that had been registered as "lost" with the Snohomish County Sheriff's office a week or so before the incident) and brought it to school.
How did the shooter get that gun?
Maybe the 14-year wanted to appear tough. At any rate, the victim and a couple of his friends were aware the 14-year old had it.
We know the 15-year old accomplice, not in class, came to the classroom of the shooter and asked the teacher to see the 14-year old. The teacher said no and saw that the accomplice was near tears. The 14-year old did get to go on a bathroom break and he comes back to class "visibly agitated" according to the teacher.
What happened when he left the classroom is unclear.
He asked for another bathroom break which the teacher said no to and that's when the teacher contacted school security.
I'll interject that her contact was at least 15-20 minutes before the shooting - what did school security do when contacted?
The teens returned to the bathroom and this was the main fight. The victim and his friends didn't get the gun but may have taken the shooter's cell phone.
The shooter and his friends leave the bathroom first and apparently, you can then see on the videotape the 17-year old laughing at them.
Somehow the two groups passed each other in the hall and the 17-year old said to the 14-year old he was "not gonna bust it" meaning, he wouldn't shoot the gun. The 17-year old went past them and the shooter took out the gun and fired several times.
It's a miracle that with other students in the hallway, that no one else was hit.
As Sad says, why were the older boys interacting with the younger boys?
Thank you ML Mama for those comments. I think fear and anger ruled the day and it came out in a terrible way for three families.
Also, why is the SPS Discipline Dashboard not being updated for the 2022-23 school year? You can see last year's Discipline Dashboard for Ingraham here.
https://www.seattleschools.org/schools/ingrahamhs/
No Discipline
I know you mean well, but DBT training in schools is a reach. I had a trained psychiatrist guide me through this with my child’s attachment issues and even then the results were mixed. Asking staff to roll out a training intended for guided therapy is a waste of everyone’s time and resources. It saddens me that once again, everyone looks to school staff to clean up the mess of a broken country.
Overly Hopeful
Can you envision these students sitting in third period, diligently taking notes on dialectical behavior therapy and then trying it out with their friends?
I never took a gun to school, but I was suspended for fighting, and I had a gun flashed at me in the auditorium during an assembly when I was in high school here in Seattle in the '90s, and I would sneak out of my house at night and get hauled home by the cops. I wasn't a bad kid, but I hung around with some bad kids because I found them more interesting than the kids in my honors classes.
And I would never, never have taken any kind of therapy lesson from a math teacher or a history teacher or even a counselor seriously. I would have rolled my eyes, made fun of all of that, and worked on my Spanish homework so I could go to my job after school.
These kinds of suggestions about mental health, therapy, stuff that educated white people like, are not going to fix the situation.
SP
Mental health is the new bottomless pit of education costs.
SP
According to a news report, SPS hasn't discussed bringing Resource Officers back into schools.
There are many unanswered questions. There were 6 boys fighting in the bathroom. Where was security?