The details of the violence are still coming together, but the latest information available to msnbc and NBC News points to a terrible scene in a Seattle-area high school today.
A student gunman opened fire Friday morning in the cafeteria of Marysville-Pilchuck High School north of Seattle, killing one person and critically wounding at least four others before turning the gun on himself, according to police. […]Just before 11 a.m. local time, officers responded to reports of shots fired inside the school, located about 40 miles north of Seattle. Police said they believe the gunman, a freshman at the high school, acted alone. Law enforcement officials completed their search of the building by the early afternoon hours, then began looking around the campus.Students were evacuated to a nearby church. Helicopter footage of the school showed students — led by armed police — exiting the building with their arms raised in the air.
In the most recent press briefing, Marysville Police PIO Cmdr. Robb Lamoureaux was not prepared to officially confirm whether the other person shot and killed was a student or staff member.
Today’s school shooting comes just four months after a school shooting at a high school in Troutdale, Oregon. At the time, that was the 74th school shooting in the United States since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., suggesting today’s gun violence was the 75th such shooting.
We’ll have more on the developments on tonight’s show, and msnbc is reporting details as they become available.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."