TEACHER SHOT DEAD; STUDENTS WOUNDED In Nevada shooting

- A student opening fire with a handgun
he took from his parents. Screaming students
running for cover. A teacher, trying to help, shot
dead. Two students wounded. The terror lasted
just a few brutal minutes.
As authorities investigated, details were still
trickling out hours after a deadly shooting
Monday at a Nevada middle school.
One official described the scene at Sparks
Middle School with one word: chaos.
Students described to CNN how they ran into
the school screaming and crying when they
realized the pops they heard were gunshots just
before the morning bell welcomed them back
from fall break.
The shooter took a handgun from his parents, a
federal law enforcement source who was briefed
on the situation told CNN's Evan Perez.
The gunman eventually shot and killed himself
with the semiautomatic gun, Sparks Deputy Chief
Tom Miller said Monday evening at a news
conference.
Teachers train to face school shooter
Authorities said the shooter's motive
was unclear.
"It's too early to say whether he was
targeting specific people or just going
on an indiscriminate shooting spree,"
said Tom Robinson, deputy chief of
the Reno Police Department.
Teacher loved his kids, brother says
Mike Landsberry, a popular math
teacher at the school, was killed in
the shooting, Sparks Mayor Geno
Martini told CNN.
In addition to his work as a teacher,
Landsberry also had served in the
Marines and served several tours in
Afghanistan as a member of the
Nevada Air National Guard, his
brother, Reggie, told CNN's
"Anderson Cooper 360."
"He was the kind of person that if someone
needed help he would be there," Reggie
Landsberry said. "He loved teaching. He loved
the kids. He loved coaching them. ... He was just
a good all-around individual."
Reggie Landsberry said his brother was probably
trying to "talk the kid down and protect whoever
he could. That sounds like Mike."
One student told "Pier Morgan Live" that she
knew the student who shot Landsberry and
wounded two 12-year-old schoolmates.
"He was really a nice kid," Amaya Newton told
CNN. "He would make you smile when you were
having bad day."
He even offered to buy other students something
to cheer them up, Newton said.
Newton said she thought the two students who
were wounded were friends of the shooter.
She and her mother, Tabatha, said they thought
the shooter had been bullied in the past.
Student Faith Robinson said she was standing to
the side of one of the school buildings where
she heard shots and saw Landsberry killed. She
told CNN that she ran into the school and was
separated from her friends.
"I start getting really worried and then I was
trying to get a hold of my Mom," she said.
Terra Robinson was just a few minutes away
when she got her daughter's distressing call.
By the time she got to the school there was a
sea of flashing lights and panicked parents, she
said.
The superintendent of Washoe County Schools
said there were many heroes.
"Including our children who, even though school
hadn't started, when the teachers came out,
they listened to them and they went into their
classrooms immediately," Pedro Martinez said.
Witness: Teacher tried to get student to put
gun down
Student Thomas Wing said he was walking out of
the cafeteria after eating breakfast when he saw
a gun.
He told CNN affiliate KOLO that Landsberry was
trying to get the student to put the weapon
down. After a gunshot, Thomas started running
back toward the cafeteria. He heard another
shot.
"I was thinking, oh my gosh, am I going to get
out of this? Am I going to die?" he told KOLO.
"My heart was pounding faster than I could
run."
An emergency dispatch calls released by the
Sparks police department indicate Landsberry
was shot on the school playground.
One wounded student was shot in the stomach,
and the other injured student was shot in the
shoulder, Washoe County School District Police
Chief Mike Mieras said. The two 12-year-old boys
were both in stable condition Monday night,
Miller said.
Does your child's school have a security plan?
Authorities said that first responders were at the
school just three minutes after the initial 911
calls.
"I think we were well-prepared. Everybody
responded appropriately. I think our first
responders did a heckuva job, but it's a sad day
for the city of Sparks," Mayor Martini told CNN.
Shooting began early Monday morning
City officials said authorities received emergency
calls from students and staff at the school about
7:15 a.m. about an active shooter on campus.
Guns, guards and posses: Schools try new
security strategies
Authorities said students were taken to a nearby
high school to meet their parents. School was
canceled for the week at Sparks Middle School
and for the day at nearby Agnes Risley
Elementary, officials said.
"I was deeply saddened to learn of the horrific
shooting at Sparks Middle School this morning,"
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval said in a statement.
"My administration is receiving regular updates
and the Nevada Highway Patrol is assisting at
the scene. Kathleen and I extend our thoughts
and prayers to the victims and those affected by
these tragic events."
The shooting is one of several this year at a U.S.
middle or high school. Last week a student at a
high school in Austin, Texas, killed himself in
front of other students. In August, a student at
a high school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina,
shot and wounded another student in the neck.
Another shooting occurred at an Atlanta middle
school in January, the same month a California
high school student wounded two people, one
seriously.
The Nevada shooting also comes almost a year
after a gunman killed 26 people at Sandy Hook
Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut,
igniting nationwide debate over gun violence
and school safety.
The mother of a student killed in December's
shooting in Newtown said Monday's shooting was
reminder of the need to find solutions to keep
students safe.
"The unthinkable has happened yet again, this
time in Sparks, Nevada," Nicole Hockley said in a
statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with
the victims, their families, and the children of
Sparks Middle School, who today came face to
face with violence that no child should ever
experience. It's moments like this that demand
that we unite as parents to find common sense
solutions that keep our children -- all children --
safe, and prevent these tragedies from
happening again and again