ST. LOUIS — Police and security footage from the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School (CVPA) shooting were released to the public on Wednesday.
On Oct. 24, 2022, a 19-year-old former CVPA student shot and killed two people and injured seven others before police killed him. Killed in the shooting were 15-year-old student Alexzandria Bell and 61-year-old Jean Kuczka, a health and physical education teacher at CVPA and a cross-country coach at the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience, which shares a campus with CVPA.
“The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is responsible for upholding the law, and we must follow it, which is why we are releasing these two videos,” Chief Robert Tracy said Monday during a news conference. “But it’s not something we take any joy in doing to retraumatize people.”
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The first video, which is nine minutes long, shows the shooter moving through the school, STLPR reports. It has no audio except for a short clip of a dispatcher telling police there was an active shooter.
The second video is from the body-worn camera of one of the first officers who entered the building. The clip, which is two minutes long, includes audio and video of the shootout between police and the suspect, said Major Janice Bockstruck, the commander of the Force Investigative Unit which investigates officer-involved shootings. Bockstruck said the unit completed its 700-page report over the weekend but that it will take a few weeks to redact some of the information before it is publicly released.
St. Louis Public Schools to Offer Support to Students, Staff
Matt Davis, vice president of the district’s Board of Education, said St. Louis Public Schools has been aware of the impending video releases and has prepared students and staff at both schools.
“We are concerned that the release of the video at this time will retraumatize people in our community,” he said. “And we know that they’ve been working very hard on dealing with their trauma, and everybody’s in a different spot, in a different place.”
The district arranged for staff at the two schools to view the video if they wanted, and officials said about 35 to 40 did. The first police officers to enter the building were also able to view the video ahead of time if they wanted, as were the families of the victims and the suspect.
St. Louis Public Schools Invests Millions in Safety Upgrades
Since the shooting, SLPS has invested millions in safety and security upgrades. In Dec. 2023, $1 million was approved for building improvements, according to Spectrum Local News. Around $750,000 of the funds were used for new doors, safety equipment, and architectural assessments currently underway. Davis said another $35 million has gone toward improvements at both campuses, such as new vestibule entries and safe rooms.
More than a dozen training requirements have been added over the past year for security officers, including threat assessments and first aid. Davis noted food service workers have also been trained in emergency operations procedures.
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While there have been discussions about whether school security officers should remain unarmed, Davis said the FBI recommended procedures remain the same with unarmed security guards on campus and armed mobile units.
“It was recommended that on a day-to-day basis, that we strike a balance that is necessary to make sure the school environment is the most productive for learning and safety,” he said.
