CHARLESTON: A South Carolina judge will decide on Friday whether a teenage boy, suspected of killing his father and wounding two boys and a teacher at an elementary school, should remain in jail.
The 14-year-old was arrested on Wednesday after crashing a pickup truck into a fence around Townville Elementary School and shooting two students and a teacher. Prior to that, he had shot his father, 47-year-old Jeffrey Osborne, at their home about 3km away, according to police.
The father, who died of multiple gunshot wounds, had been watching television on a couch at home, Anderson County coroner Greg Shore said by phone.
Before the shooting, his son had apparently been doing homework, Shore said.
"His computer was open on the kitchen table," Shore said, noting that the son was home-schooled. "He took his father's truck and drove to the school."
The boy, who has not been identified, will appear before an Anderson County judge for an initial detention hearing at 11am, prosecutor Chrissy Adams said in a statement.
Since the suspect is a juvenile, all hearings will be closed to the public, she said.
The incident was the latest shooting at a US school to stoke debate about access to guns. Many schools have bolstered security since 2012, when a gunman shot and killed 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Six-year-old Jacob Hall, one of the students who was shot by the teenager, was in critical condition at the Greenville Health System Children's Hospital. A bullet had torn through his femoral artery, causing blood loss that led to a "major brain injury," the family said.
Teacher Meghan Hollingsworth, who was shot in the shoulder, and the other boy who was wounded in the attack, also six, according to media reports, were treated and released.
Billy McAdams, chief of the Townville Volunteer Fire Department, credited first responders and the school's staff for preventing more casualties.
Hollingsworth had shepherded students inside to safety and urged medics to tend to injured children before treating her, he said.
Jamie Brock, an unarmed volunteer firefighter, pinned down the shooter for police, McAdams said at a news conference.
Authorities said they did not know of any connection between the shooter and the victims at the school.
Citing the aunt of a six-year-old girl who was headed outside for recess, the Greenville News reported that the suspect said, "I hate my life," before firing a handgun at the school.