Five Shot in Ohio School

The teen shooter was the only life lost when it was all over.

(CLEVELAND, Ohio) - Police in Cleveland, Ohio say a 14-year-old shooting suspect took his own life today after shooting five people down. It happened at a downtown Cleveland high school, where the shooter had been suspended Monday for fighting.

Other students identified the shooter, school officials confirmed that the boy was not supposed to attend school on that day.

The student identified as the shooter by students at the school had been suspended Monday for fighting, said Charles Blackwell, president of SuccessTech's student-parent organization. School officials said the suspect was not supposed to be at school that day.

A 57-year old teacher and a 42-year old man were in stable condition after being shot. A 17-year old boy was shot in the elbow. A 14-year old girl was also shot in the elbow, and a 14-year old boy, who was struck by a bullet in the side. None of the students received life-threatening injuries.

Sadly, it appears from reports that the school's security guard was on vacation. Two other full time guards had been laid off.

The AP reports that students stood outside the school building offering support to one another. Some used cell phones, some cried, and some yelled at news crews who had also gathered in the wake of the shooting.

One student said they had the shooter's number, calling him "crazy" and saying that he had threatened to blow up the school and "stab everybody."

One 15-year old student named Rasheem Smith told the AP that he could not tell at first what the sound was, the sound that turned out to be gunfire.

"I heard gunshots but I just thought someone was banging a book on the desk," he said.

The school where the shooting occurred is called Success Tech Academy. It is an alternative high school with about 240 students, most of whom are black, the balance consisting of a few white and Hispanic students. Each student in this school is considered poor under federal poverty guidelines.