ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD) released a 456-page report on the Oct. 2022 shooting at the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School (CVPA). Killed in the shooting were 15-year-old Alexzandria Bell and 61-year-old Jean Kuczka. Seven others were injured.
According to the report, the 19-year-old former CVPA student, who had no criminal history, parked his vehicle on a sidewalk outside the school, and attempted to enter a triple-paneled glass door located on the north side of the building but it was locked. He then used an AR-15-style rifle to shoot out the lower glass panel, reached inside to grab the emergency exit push bar to open the locked door, and entered the school.
Authorities said the shooter had “a large quantity” of ammunition totaling over 600 rounds. The teen was confronted by responding officers in an empty classroom and gunfire was exchanged. He was shot and taken to an area hospital where he later died.
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The report draws from nearly 70 St. Louis police officer’s first-hand accounts of the incident and includes the shooter’s manifesto, which he left inside his car. The handwritten notebook detailed the teen’s plans to target members of the LGBTQ+ community. Several charges in the incident report were classified as bias crimes.
“It just hurt my heart to know that sanctuary for creativity was invaded. It hurt those kids there who were just trying to live their best lives,” Jordan Braxton, the director of diversity, inclusion and outreach for nonprofit Pride STL, told KSDK. “If we keep repeating this disinformation about how bad LGBT people are, how demonic queer people are, of course it’s going to make people think that we’re second class citizens or that we’re animals and we should targeted and we should be hunted. That’s basically what people do. That’s basically what he did. He came to the school and he hunted for queer students.”
Police Report, Manifesto Details CVPA Shooter’s Mental Health Struggles
The manifesto included a psychiatrist’s report of the teen’s mental health and documents detailing his prescribed medication. It also had a list of psychiatrists that he did not like. Police did not mention if they were possible targets.
According to the report, Tanya Ward, the shooter’s mother, told officers that her son attempted suicide twice and contemplated it once between 2021 and 2022. The first time was in Aug. 2021, just a few weeks before he was supposed to leave for college in a different state. The teen was taken to the hospital and then placed in a psychiatric facility. He was eventually released and began regularly seeing a therapist. Around Thanksgiving of 2021, he allegedly told his therapist that he had contemplated suicide again. He was admitted to a facility but was released before Christmas of that year.
The teen allegedly attempted suicide again in July 2022 and was immediately hospitalized. He then saw a new psychiatrist on two occasions in Aug. 2022. During an Aug. 22 appointment, the psychiatrist said he told her he had thought about shooting people at his old high school in the previous two weeks. He told her that “the thought lasted for one evening and then went away” and that he hadn’t made any plans. However, police said the shooter’s manifesto had a detailed plan and a 60-day countdown leading up to the shooting, which would have been Aug. 25, 2022.
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The psychiatrist said she was scheduled to see the teen again in September but he didn’t show up and attempts to reschedule were “met with negative results.” She also said she prescribed him medication and thought she had convinced him to take it but discovered the prescription was never filled.
A coworker told investigators that the gunman gave her a ride home from work just two days before the shooting and told her that he “wasn’t coming back.” She described him as “being down and suffering from depression.”
The manifesto also included a “Dying Declaration” in which he said he wanted to be the “Next Mass Shooter of 2022.” It listed several names of other mass shooters and the number of people killed by each. The teen wrote that his goal was to “kill 30 people minimum” and then “commit suicide after or die in a shoot off with police.”
CVPA Shooter’s Family Tried to Take Away His Gun
The report says the shooter’s youngest sibling told their mother about two packages that the teen had received from “ammunition places” on Oct. 15. Ward said she hid the packages but her son started asking about them when he got an email that said they had been delivered. One of his siblings opened the packages, which included a body armor vest, magazine holders, and magazines. The sibling then searched her brother’s room and found a rifle inside a TV box.
Ward told investigators she then checked his bank account and found additional charges for tactical gear and firearms. She subsequently called SLMPD to try to get them to take the gun away. Crisis intervention officers responded to the residence but reportedly said they had no legal grounds to take the gun.
“Officers responded and determined at that time the suspect was lawfully permitted to possess the firearm,” read a statement given by police after the shooting.
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Missouri does not require permits to purchase or carry firearms and it does not require firearms to be registered or for gun owners to be licensed. It also does not have a red flag law, which would allow law enforcement to remove weapons from a person who is potentially dangerous to themselves or others.
One of the shooter’s sisters told police that her brother’s demeanor changed about two years prior to the shooting after he was in a car crash. She told investigators after the shooting that “she knew something was going to happen.” Another sister said that when she heard about the shooting, she thought her brother was involved but hoped it was not him.
CVPA Shooter Manifesto Included Campus Layout
The first three pages of the manifesto included schematics of CVPA and was accompanied by handwritten notations identifying the gymnasium as the “first target.” The shooter also wrote that certain teachers had wronged him and circled their classrooms on a map of the school.
The campus has multiple schools with 14 different connected buildings plus an annex building, gymnasium, and dance studio. It is three stories high and also has a basement level. Officers had difficulty explaining which building and which floor they believed the shooter was on, according to researcher David Riedman. Some entered on the first floor while others entered through the basement. Timestamps included in footage released by SLMPD show it took officers approximately 15 minutes to locate the shooter inside the building.