Family requests seizure of rifle before school shooting on 22

Orlando Harris’ family pleaded with Missouri police to seize the 19-year-old’s bulletproof vest, ammunition and AR-15-style rifle. They knew his mental health was fragile after multiple suicide attempts. But in a state with the broadest gun rights, the best cops can do is suggest Harris keep the gun in storage.

Nine days later Harris returned to the old St. He walked into a St. Louis high school and said, “You’re all going to die.”

A new 456-page police report details Harris’ efforts to retrieve his family’s gun in the days before he entered Central High School for the Visual and Performing Arts on Oct. 24, 2022, and killed a student and a teacher. and injured seven others before being fatally shot by police.

Missouri is not among the 21 states with red flag laws that restrict gun purchases or temporarily keep guns away from people who might harm themselves or someone else.

The report indicates that Harris’ first suicide attempt was in the fall of 2021, just before she was scheduled to attend college. Pandemic disruptions, a friend’s arrest in a murder and a car crash may have contributed to the depression, his family and his former boss told investigators.

The police report does not mention that he went to college. Instead, he worked in the cafeteria of a high-end facility and sometimes argued with co-workers about guns.

The following year, Harris began the countdown to filming. Their plan included detailed maps of the school and a plan targeting teachers, students and the LGBTQ community. He also had plans to burn down his family’s house with him inside.

On October 8, 2022, St. He tried to buy a firearm from a licensed dealer in St. Charles, Mo., but that transaction was thwarted by an FBI background check. The report does not explain why.

On Oct. 10, Harris drove to a nearby suburb to pay a man $580 in cash for the rifle used in the attack.

Harris’ family became even more concerned when two packages arrived from arms and ammunition suppliers on October 15. One of his sisters, Yokeeka Harris, opened them and found a bulletproof vest, magazine covers and magazines. He then searched the bedroom and found the rifle.

Harris’ mother, Tanya Ward, called BJC Mental Health Services. The staff advised him to take the items to the police department.

Police told him they couldn’t take the firearm because Harris was of legal age to possess a gun. They told him he needed to go home and an officer would meet them there. When he returned, Harris was home and insisted he keep the gun.

His mother was adamant the gun wasn’t in the house, so officers suggested a storage facility. The officers also advised her on the steps she would need to take to have her son deemed mentally unstable, the report said. Federal law has prohibited certain mentally ill people from buying guns since 1968.

Ultimately, the firearm and other items were loaded into the trunk of Harris’ sister’s vehicle, including a box of ammunition that arrived the next day. He then drove his brother to a warehouse about 5 miles from the high school.

He told police he “knew something was going to happen.”

On October 24, gunshots rang out as Harris entered his old high school.