Update: Chief: Armed student in Wis. high school shot selfAP reports that a student armed with a handgun held nearly two dozen students and a teacher hostage in a Wisconsin high school for about five hours before shooting himself when police broke into the classroom, authorities said Monday. No other injuries were reported.
Officers who were outside the Marinette High School classroom said they heard three gunshots shortly after 8 p.m. and busted through the door, said Police Chief Jeff Skorik. The 15-year-old male gunman then shot himself.
Skorik said the teen was taken to an area hospital and his condition was not immediately known Monday night.
Five of the 23 students who had been taken hostage about 3 p.m. had been released about 20 minutes before police entered the classroom because they told the gunman they had to use the bathroom, Skorik said.
The other 18 students and the female teacher, who had acted as a mediator between the male hostage-taker and authorities, were released unharmed once officers were inside.
Skorik said the gunman had refused to communicate with officials during the standoff, but allowed the teacher to speak with authorities by phone.
UPDATE 8:51 PN
CNN reports a handgun-toting student is holding 23 classmates and a teacher hostage inside a room at a northeast Wisconsin high school, police said Monday night.
The young male took over the classroom sometime near the end of the school day Monday, preventing anyone from leaving and eventually communicating with police through ateacher, Marinette Police Chief Jeffrey Skorik told reporters.
Refuting rumors circulating on social media sites, Skorik said authorities did not believe anyone had been hurt thus far at Marinette High School or that any shots had been fired.
The chief said that the student had no previous run-ins with the law, adding that it wasn't clear why he took hostages.
"We have no idea, as far as his motivation at this point," Skorik said.
A school administrator called police at 3:48 p.m. (4:48 p.m. ET) Monday, after most students had left for the day, reporting that an armed student had gone into a classroom and taken those inside hostage.
About 40 law enforcement personnel converged on the scene, including hostage negotiators who set up inside the school, according to Skorik. They had not talked directly with the student some three hours into the incident, but did get regular updates from the teacher.
Skorik said that the hostage-taker is a student at Marinette High, and that he believed -- though he could not confirm -- was assigned to the class that he took over.
Police know the identity of the student, though they haven't name him publicly, and have talked with his family members. Skorik said law enforcement believe the the young male, armed with a single handgun, is acting alone.
Law enforcement urged parents who didn't know their children's whereabouts to go to the Marinette County Courthouse, where they could see those on the affected class's roster, talk with police and get help from mental-health counselors.
Dozens of students and family members also gathered at a nearby hair salon, and the street to the high school was blocked off, according to CNN affiliate WBAY.
Marinette has about 11,600 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Bordering Lake Michigan, the city is just over 50 miles north of Green Bay.
CBS News reports an emergency management official in Wisconsin says an armed student has taken hostages inside a high school classroom in Marinette. Marinette County emergency management director Eric Burmeister says a high school administrator called authorities after 3 p.m. Monday to say an armed student had burst into a classroom. Burmeister says he's unsure how many people are in the classroom and no injuries have been reported.
Choral teacher Bonita Weydt tells The Associated Press that school ended about 10 minutes later and the principal told her to leave the building immediately. Burmeister says parents are being asked to go to the county courthouse. Marinette is a little more than an hour north of Green Bay and sits on the border with Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
CBS News affiliate WFRV reports that a Marinette High School administrator made a call to Marinette Co. Communications Dispatch that an armed student was holding hostages in a classroom.
WFRV reports that police are at the scene and no injuries are reported.
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