Authorities: School shooter killed father before rampage

TOWNVILLE, S.C. -- A teenager killed his father at their home Wednesday before going to a nearby elementary school and opening fire with a handgun, wounding two students and a teacher, authorities said.

The teen was apprehended within minutes of the shooting in this rural town about 110 miles northeast of Atlanta. One of the students was shot in the leg and the other in the foot, said Capt. Garland Major of the Anderson County Sheriff's Office. Both students were male. The female teacher was hit in the shoulder.

Before the shooting at Townville Elementary about 1:45 p.m., the teen gunned down his 47-year-old father, Jeffrey Osborne, at their home about two miles from the school, authorities said.

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

The shooter never entered the school building and was apprehended by firefighter Jamie Brock, a 30-year veteran of the Townville Volunteer Fire Department, according to Anderson County sheriff's Lt. Sheila Cole.

Authorities did not reveal the teen's age at a news conference Wednesday afternoon, and Cole said she doesn't have his age. The Anderson Independent-Mail quotes Anderson County Sheriff chief deputy Keith Smith as saying the teen is 14 and could be charged as a minor.

Authorities did not release a motive for the shooting and said they weren't sure whether the students and teacher were targeted.

One of the students and the teacher were released from the hospital Wednesday evening, AnMed Health spokeswoman Juana Slade.

Greenville News reported a 6-year-old was airlifted to Greenville Memorial in critical condition. Greenville Memorial spokeswoman Sandy Dees confirmed a child was taken to the hospital but would not release further information.

Asked about the teen's relationship to the students, Major said, "I know they all go to school together." He later said the teen was being home-schooled and didn't clarify his earlier remark.

Authorities said they believe there was only one shooterm and all other students at Townville Elementary were safe. The students were bused to a nearby church and reunited with their parents.

The school has about 300 students in its pre-kindergarten to sixth-grade classrooms. It is surrounded by working farms.

"This is the country," Brandi Pierce, the mother of a sixth-grader, said as she began to cry. "You don't have this in the country. It just don't exist out here."

Jamie Meredith, a student's mother, said some children went into a bathroom during the shooting.

"I don't know how they knew to go in the bathroom, but I know her teacher was shaken up. I know all the kids were scared. There was a bunch of kids crying. She didn't talk for about five minutes when I got her," she said.