Sparks student says he came face-to-face with shooter

SPARKS — Students cowered in fear and pleaded for their lives as a 12-year-old Sparks boy went on a schoolyard rampage with a handgun he brought from home, waving the weapon at frightened classmates and shooting a math teacher in the chest on a basketball court.

The boy opened fire Monday morning on the Sparks Middle School campus, wounding two boys and killing the teacher before he turned the gun on himself.

Washoe County School District police revealed Tuesday that the seventh-grader brought the 9mm semi-automatic Ruger handgun from his home, but authorities were still working to determine how he obtained it. The student’s parents were cooperating with authorities and could face charges, police said.

Eighth-grader Angelo Ferro recalled burying his face in his hands as the boy waved the gun and threatened to shoot. Another seventh-grader and Ferro’s math teacher, Michael Landsberry, lay gunned down nearby.

“The whole time I was hoping Mr. L was OK, we’d all get through it, it was a bad dream,” Ferro told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Ferro, 13, was in the schoolyard with friends when the violence erupted.

He heard a pop about 15 minutes before the morning bell rang but didn’t think much of it. He then saw an injured boy clutching his wounded arm, and he watched Landsberry walk toward the gunman and take a bullet to the chest.

Unable to get inside the locked-down school, Ferro and others crouched against the building for safety but soon came face-to-face with the armed student.

Ferro didn’t know the boy but said he and other classmates begged for their lives. Something distracted the student, and he didn’t shoot. “He left, thank God,” Ferro said.

A series of 911 calls made from the school also reflected the terror of the situation, including an ominous report of “teacher down.”

Authorities say they’re withholding the shooter’s name out of respect for his family. They provided no motive for the shooting but said they’ve interviewed 20 to 30 witnesses.

“Everybody wants to know why; that’s the big question. The answer is, we don’t know right now,” Sparks Deputy Police Chief Tom Miller said.

Under Nevada law, it is illegal to allow anyone under 18 to handle a gun without supervision. The offense rises to a felony if there was substantial risk the child would use the firearm to commit a violent act. The law doesn’t apply if the gun was stored securely or if the child obtained the weapon unlawfully.

At a news conference Tuesday, law enforcement and school officials again lauded the actions of Landsberry, a 45-year-old former Marine who tried to stop the rampage before he was killed.

“I cannot express enough appreciation for Mr. Landsberry,” Washoe County School District Superintendent Pedro Martinez said. “He truly is a hero.”

Students said they saw Landsberry walk calmly toward the shooter and ask him to hand over his weapon before he was gunned down. Washoe County School District Police Chief Mike Mieras said Landsberry’s actions gave some students enough time to run to safety.

After killing Landsberry, the boy fired at a second student, hitting him in the abdomen. He then shot himself in the head.

The two 12-year-old boys who were wounded are in stable condition and recovering.

Students from the middle school and neighboring elementary school were evacuated to a high school after the shooting, and all classes were canceled. The middle school will remain closed for the week, while an adjacent elementary school is set to reopen Wednesday.

Landsberry coached several youth sports. He also served two tours in Afghanistan with the Nevada National Guard. Landsberry served in the Marine Corps from 1986 to 1990 and was stationed in Camp Lejeune, N.C., and Okinawa, Japan, according to military records.

Senior Master Sgt. Robert Garrett attended middle school with Landsberry in Reno before serving as his supervisor in recent years at the Nevada Air National Guard.

“Every one of the people I have talked to just knew that Mike was in there,” Garrett said. “He was the guy that would have jumped in there to stop the bullets from hitting other kids. And sure enough, it was.”

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Rindels reported from Las Vegas. Associated Press news researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York City contributed to this report.