October 24, 2014 at 11:06 AM 
 
 UPDATED STORY AND ADDITIONAL COVERAGE AT 10:30 P.M. FRIDAY: Popular student’s deadly attack stuns school and community 
 
 EARLIER POST 
 
 Two students are dead after one of them opened fire Friday morning in the Marysville-Pilchuck High School cafeteria before turning the gun on himself, authorities said. 
 
 Police said a girl was killed and two other girls and two boys were wounded in the 10:45 a.m. shooting. Several students identified the shooter as freshman Jaylen Fryberg, recently named the school’s homecoming prince. 
 
 Zach Yarbrough, a junior, said he saw the shooter “extend his arm across a round table and fire his gun three to four times.” He watched the shootings but didn’t see what happened afterward because he “was already out of the cafeteria.” 
 
 Four young people — two boys and two girls — were taken by ambulance to Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett. 
 
 Both girls who are at Providence with gunshot wounds to the head are now out of surgery and in a critical care unit. Both were ID’d by family members with the help of police, but families asked not to release their names. Doctors will monitor brain activity overnight, and there was no immediate prognosis, said Dr. Joanne Roberts, chief medical officer for Providence. 
 
 Friday afternoon, teary-eyed teens and adults who said they were family and friends of one of the victims huddled in a hallway near a main entrance to the hospital. Some made calls on their cellphones, but most stood quietly near one another. 
 
 Another victim, Andrew Fryberg, a 15-year-old cousin of Jaylen, had surgery at Providence then was transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. 
 
 The fourth, 14-year-old Nate Hatch, was shot in the jaw and was also transferred to Harborview. He was out of surgery and in serious condition Friday afternoon. He also is a cousin of Fryberg. 
 
 “His family is coming to grips with what happened,” a hospital spokeswoman said. 
 
 Jarron Webb, 15, said the shooter was angry about a romantic relationship he was involved in, and that the girl was one of the people shot. He said he believes one of the victims was his friend since kindergarten. 
 
 Freshmen Brandon Carr, 15, and Kobe Baumann, 14, said they were just outside the cafeteria when the shooting happened. 
 
 “We started hearing these loud banging noises, like someone hitting a trash can,” Carr said. They heard screaming and yelling. 
 
 “Once I knew it was gunshots, we just booked it,” Carr said. 
 
 They eventually joined about two dozen kids inside a classroom with police and FBI. Police told them to stay in there. “Everybody in the classroom was just freaking out crying,” Carr said. Eventually, they were told they could leave, and were loaded onto buses. 
 
 Carr said he knew Fryberg and that both were on the freshman football team. He said that Thursday at practice, Fryberg was in good spirits. 
 
 “He was all happy, dancing around and listening to music. I don’t know what happened today,” Carr said. 
 
 Baumann said he was in fourth-period English class with Fryberg right before the shooting, and that he seemed kind of nervous. 
 
 “He sits right up in the front. He got called on, but he just kept his head down and didn’t really say anything.” 
 
 Students reported pandemonium in the lunchroom after the shooting, with dozens rushing for doors and then jumping a fence to escape. 
 
 Freshman Austin Wright said every exit in the lunchroom was jammed with kids escaping gunfire. “I heard three gunshots and I ran.” 
 
 Richard Young, who knows the Fryberg family and has a son at the high school, said he’s heard community members describe Jaylen as “a really good kid.” 
 
 “He was well-liked,” Young said. “It’s just a big shock to everybody.” 
 
 Fryberg’s postings on Twitter are full of angst, with his most recent posting on Thursday morning saying, “It won’t last…. It’ll never last….” 
 
 “I should have listened…. You were right,” he wrote in another message earlier in the week. 
 
 Other images on social media showed him joyful, playing sports and spending time with his girlfriend. One image shows him proudly holding the antler of a deer, with a hunting rifle next to him. 
 
 Jaylen comes from a family that is prominent in the Tulalip Tribes. His grandfather is director of fish and wildlife at the tribe. 
 
 “Anytime something happens to one of our kids, it affects everyone,” tribal communications director Niki Cleary said. “Everybody will be dealing with this for a long time.” 
 
 As residents gathered at the Don Hatch Youth Center on the reservation, one Tulalip resident said many members heard the last name on the news and immediately knew who the broadcasters were talking about. By process of elimination, they realized it was Jaylen. 
 
 “We’re all one family,” he said. “You never imagine it’s going to happen here.” 
 
 A crisis team is providing counseling services at the center. Anyone in the area is welcome to come, behavioral health executive director Diane Henry said. 
 
 “We’ll be here as long as we’re needed,” Henry said. 
 
 At a noon news conference, Marysville Police Cmdr. Robb Lamoureux called the scene an active investigation and said police officers were going door-to-door to ensure that the campus was safe. They were leaving tape to mark the doors of rooms that had been cleared. Officers were finding students and staff members hiding alone or in small groups. 
 
 “We are confident that there was only one shooter and that the shooter is dead,” Lamoureux said. 
 
 Some of the school’s 1,200 students were evacuated, walking out and across the fields with their hands up. Others were told to stay inside classrooms. 
 
 Sophomore Arlene Cortez, 16, says she locked herself in a classroom with other students for about 45 minutes before police came in. 
 
 Some were bused to the nearby Shoultes Gospel Hall, where they are being accounted for. Lamoureux urged parents and family members of students to stay away from the scene, saying authorities would provide information on a location for them to be reunited with students. 
 
 At the church, tearful parents and students were being reunited, and hugging. 
 
 “I never thought I would be standing here after a school shooting,” said Heather Parker, whose son, Corbin, is a senior. “He’s pretty shook up. He just said ‘I’m OK.’ He was trying to calm me down.” 
 
 Adam Holston, 14, a freshman, was just leaving the lunchroom when the gunfire broke out. “Everyone just started running. I could hear the gunshots and my heart was racing and we didn’t know what was going on.” 
 
 Some ran out to the parking lot, some to the field. 
 
 “Someone opened a door and we all ran into classrooms and just stayed there.” 
 
 Jery Holston had two children in the school communicating with him by cellphone. They were both OK. Adam is a freshman; Kayleigh is a senior. 
 
 Holston said Adam called him this morning yelling, “Dad, dad, hurry, someone is shooting. Please come.” He said his son ran and hid outside in the field by the stadium. 
 
 Jery was in Stanwood at the time. “I probably did a hundred miles per hour to get there. I didn’t stop for anything. My heart went into my stomach. As a father, this has been my fear since my kids have been in school, that something like this would happen.” 
 
 Ayn Dietrich-Williams, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Seattle, said agents were in Marysville to offer assistance. 
 
 All classes have been canceled through next week, and activities and sports through at least the weekend. 
 
 Marysville is among three school districts recently chosen to share a $10 million federal grant for improved student mental-health services, which have been identified as a pressing need. Administrators were working on plans for the money just as news came about the shooting Friday morning. 
 
 “We’re stunned,” just stunned,” said Jodi Runyon, assistant to Marysville superintendent Becky Berg. 
 
 Jerry Jenkins, who supervises Marysville and several other districts for the Puget Sound Educational Service District, said, “The tragedy that happened in Marysville could have happened anywhere. We used to have a much greater social safety net. Marysville has been willing to sit down and work with mental health providers to get mental health services to kids who need it, even though that is not a school’s traditional role.” 
 
 This story includes information from Times staff reporters Jennifer Sullivan, Christine Clarridge, Mike Baker, Leah Todd, Lewis Kamb, Coral Garnick, Paige Cornwell, Dan Beekman and Jim Brunner, Times researcher Miyoko Wolf and assistant metro editor John de Leon. 
 
 Photos: Scenes from the Marysville-Pilchuck High School shooting ||||| 2 dead, 4 critically injured in shooting at Marysville high school 
 
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 MARYSVILLE, Wash. - A student recently crowned freshman class Homecoming prince walked into his Marysville Pilchuck high school cafeteria Friday and opened fire, killing one person and shooting four others — including two of his cousins — before turning the gun on himself, officials and witnesses said. 
 
 
 
 Students said the gunman was staring at his victims as he shot them inside the cafeteria. The shootings set off a chaotic scene as students ran from the cafeteria and building in a frantic dash to safety, while others were told to stay put inside classrooms. 
 
 
 
 Police say there was only one gunman. 
 
 
 
 "We are confident there is only one shooter and the shooter is deceased," said Marysville Police Cmdr. Robb Lamoureux in a noon briefing. 
 
 
 
 The gunman was identified as student Jaylen Fryberg. Students and parents said Fryberg was a member of a prominent family from the nearby Tulalip Indian tribes and a freshman who played on the high school football team. He was introduced at a football game as a prince in the 2014 Homecoming court, according to a video shot by parent Jim McGauhey. 
 
 
 
 Shaylee Bass, 15, a sophomore at the school, said Fryberg had recently gotten into a fight with another boy over a girl. 
 
 
 
 "He was very upset about that," said Bass, who was stunned by the shooting. 
 
 
 
 "He was not a violent person," she said. "His family is known all around town. He was very well known. That's what makes it so bizarre." 
 
 
 
 'God, let my kids be safe' 
 
 
 
 Dr. Joanne Roberts at Providence Regional Medical Center said four young victims were transported there after the shootings. Three of them - two girls and a boy - are in very critical condition with head wounds. The fourth student, a boy, is in critical but stable condition, and was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, she said. 
 
 
 
 The male victim at Providence was later transported to Harborview. 
 
 
 
 Harborview spokesperson Susan Gregg confirmed that the two male victims, 14-year-old Nate Hatch and 15-year-old Andrew Fryberg, remain in critical condition. 
 
 
 
 Brian Patrick said his daughter, a freshman, was in the cafeteria 10 feet from the gunman when the shooting occurred. She ran from the cafeteria and immediately called her mother. 
 
 
 
 Patrick said his daughter told him, 'The guy walked into the cafeteria, pulled out a gun and started shooting. No arguing, no yelling." 
 
 
 
 His other daughter, a senior at the school, called him 'hysterical' from her classroom, Patrick said. 
 
 
 
 "I thought, 'God, let my kids be safe," he said. 
 
 
 
 Student Tanya Christenson said she was in the cafeteria when the shooting happened. 
 
 
 
 "Four shots went off. I thought it was firecrackers, and then everyone started ducking under the tables, and then everyone started screaming, 'Run, it's a gun!'" she said. 
 
 
 
 Student: Nothing to indicate Frybeg was upset 
 
 
 
 Some students described Jaylen Fryberg as a happy, popular student, but social media accounts suggested he was struggling with an unidentified problem. 
 
 
 
 On Wednesday, a posting on his Twitter account read: "It won't last ... It'll never last." On Monday, another tweet said: "I should have listened. ... You were right ... The whole time you were right." 
 
 
 
 Marysville-Pilchuck High School has a number of students from the Tulalip Indian tribes. 
 
 
 
 Ron Iukes, a youth counselor with the tribes, said Jaylen Fryberg was from a well-known tribal family. 
 
 "They're real good people, very loving, a big part of the community," he said. "Jaylen was one of our good kids. It's just a shock this happened. I've known this boy since he was a baby." 
 
 
 
 Nathan Heckendorf, a 17-year-old junior at the high school, said he saw Jaylen Fryberg on Friday morning before the shooting and there was nothing to indicate he was upset. 
 
 
 
 "He looked happy, everything seemed fine," Heckendorf said. 
 
 
 
 Oak Harbor football team forfeits to give league championship to Marysville-Pilchuck 
 
 
 
 State Sen. John McCoy, a tribal member, said the shooting devastated the tribal community. 
 
 
 
 "We're all related in one shape or form. We live and work and play together," he said. 
 
 
 
 Hundreds of people prayed and sang at a church vigil Friday night for victims and family members. 
 
 
 
 The Oak Harbor high school football team, which had been set to play Marysville later that night, lined the front row of Grove Church in their purple jerseys. The game was canceled and Oak Harbor offered to give the win to Marysville. 
 
 
 
 "It's something we need," Felecia Thompson said about the vigil. "And getting together right away, we can help move through it." 
 
 
 
 The school district will have counselors available Saturday morning from 9 a.m. to noon at 4220 80th Street NE in Marysville. ||||| Story highlights "Only God knows what escalated this," a relative of the shooter says 
 
 Two male victims have been identified as Andrew Fryberg and Nate Hatch 
 
 Andrew Fryberg and Nate Hatch Two others identified as Shaylee Chuckulnaskit and Gia Soriano, both 14 
 
 Official: The gun has been traced to the shooter's father 
 
 When a teenage gunman opened fire at students in a high school cafeteria in Washington state, a relative said, he was not shooting at random targets. 
 
 Jaylen Fryberg , who witnesses said gunned down students at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, is the cousin of two of the wounded. 
 
 "All three of them are cousins, and they live right close to each other," Don Hatch told CNN affiliate KOMO 
 
 His 14-year-old grandson, Nate Hatch, is among four wounded in the rampage Friday that left Fryberg and a female student dead. 
 
 The boys were close friends, nearly inseparable, Hatch said. They even went to a school dance together last week, where Fryberg was named the freshman class homecoming prince. 
 
 "Only God knows what escalated this. Only God knows," Hatch said, according to KOMO . "Nobody pushed a button with bullying. It's just something that happened, and we don't know why." 
 
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 Photos: Photos: Shooting at Washington high school Photos: Photos: Shooting at Washington high school Shooting at Washington high school – Students from Marysville-Pilchuck High School write messages and prayers during a vigil Friday, October 24, at a church in Marysville, Washington. Earlier in the day, a student shot five people at the school before he committed suicide, law enforcement officials told CNN. Hide Caption 1 of 13 Photos: Photos: Shooting at Washington high school Shooting at Washington high school – Community members and students gather for the vigil. Hide Caption 2 of 13 Photos: Photos: Shooting at Washington high school Shooting at Washington high school – People embrace at the church where students were taken to be reunited with parents. Hide Caption 3 of 13 Photos: Photos: Shooting at Washington high school Shooting at Washington high school – Parents crowd around buses as students arrive at the church. Hide Caption 4 of 13 Photos: Photos: Shooting at Washington high school Shooting at Washington high school – A woman waits on a curb at the church. Hide Caption 5 of 13 Photos: Photos: Shooting at Washington high school Shooting at Washington high school – People hug after arriving at the church. Hide Caption 6 of 13 Photos: Photos: Shooting at Washington high school Shooting at Washington high school – A girl is consoled at the church after the shooting. Hide Caption 7 of 13 Photos: Photos: Shooting at Washington high school Shooting at Washington high school – Police monitor the school's athletic fields after the shooting. Hide Caption 8 of 13 Photos: Photos: Shooting at Washington high school Shooting at Washington high school – Emergency personnel respond to the school after the shooting. Hide Caption 9 of 13 Photos: Photos: Shooting at Washington high school Shooting at Washington high school – Authorities "are confident that there is only one single shooter," Marysville police spokesman Robert Lamoureux told reporters. Hide Caption 10 of 13 Photos: Photos: Shooting at Washington high school Shooting at Washington high school – Students walk across a field after reports of shots being fired at the school. Hide Caption 11 of 13 Photos: Photos: Shooting at Washington high school Shooting at Washington high school – Authorities first learned about the shooting after getting a 911 phone call around 10:30 a.m. (1:30 p.m. ET) from someone inside the school, Lamoureux said. Hide Caption 12 of 13 Photos: Photos: Shooting at Washington high school Shooting at Washington high school – A student locked down inside a classroom told CNN by phone that the shooting began in the cafeteria. Hide Caption 13 of 13 
 
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 Hatch said he forgives Fryberg and plans on visiting his family. 
 
 "I'll say, 'I feel for you and I'll pray for you,'" he said. 
 
 Authorities have not publicly identified the shooter or the student he killed. 
 
 The shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Marysville police spokesman Robb Lamoureux said. 
 
 Wounded in intensive care 
 
 The wounded -- two girls and two boys -- are in intensive care in hospitals in Seattle and Everett. 
 
 The boys, identified as cousins 15-year-old Andrew Fryberg and Nate Hatch, are at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Susan Gregg, the hospital's spokeswoman, said. Fryberg is in critical condition and Hatch is listed in serious condition, she said. 
 
 The girls were identified as Shaylee Chuckulnaskit and Gia Soriano, both 14, according to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett's chief medical officer Dr. Joanne Roberts. They were in critical condition with head injuries. 
 
 At a news conference Saturday, Roberts read a brief statement from Soriano's family: "Our family is in shock. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers during this tragedy. Our hearts go out to the other victims and their families." 
 
 Roberts said dead tissue was being removed from the girls' head wounds and surgery was conducted to allow their brains to swell and contract. 
 
 "The next three days are going to be crucial," she said. 
 
 Of the victims' families, Roberts said: "They are having all of the reactions that you or I would have if we were in their circumstances. Much of the day yesterday was spent trying to make identification. That was terribly stressful for them. We've seen tears. We've seen anger. They are just grieving." 
 
 Lunchroom in shock 
 
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 Investigators in Marysville, about 34 miles north of Seattle, have not provided details on the shooting, but students offered up accounts that painted a terrifying, chaotic picture. 
 
 Fellow student Jordan Luton was finishing his lunch in the cafeteria when he heard a loud bang. 
 
 He saw Fryberg go up to a table of students, "came up from behind ... and fired about six bullets into the backs of them," Luton told CNN. "They were his friends, so it wasn't just random." 
 
 Freshman Rachel Heichel was sitting at a table about 60 feet from Fryberg. When the shots started, she turned around and saw the shooter standing there. 
 
 "When I saw him, I was like, 'Oh my God, that's Jaylen.' I would have never expected it would have been him, out of all people," she said. 
 
 School in scramble 
 
 Someone called 911, and by 10:40 a.m., police swarmed the building, guns readied. 
 
 They went room to room, placing tape over doors to mark the ones they'd secured. 
 
 "I've got 30 students at the gym ready to go to the northwest," police could be heard saying over radio. "We're going there to evacuate more students." 
 
 Then they came upon the gunman's 
 
 body. 
 
 The Snohomish County sheriff's office said Saturday that investigators interviewed more than 100 students and confirmed that "a cafeteria worker attempted to stop the shooter." 
 
 The Beretta .40-caliber handgun believed used in the shooting has been traced to Fryberg's father, a law enforcement source told CNN. 
 
 It was bought at Cabela's in Tulalip, Washington, a federal source said. 
 
 Grief, disbelief 
 
 It was hard for Luton to make sense of the shooting. 
 
 "I have no idea what his motive was because yesterday at football practice, he was all fine, talking ... having a good time," he said. "And then today, just horrible. I don't know what went through his head or what caused him to do it." 
 
 Alex Pietsch, a sophomore, told CNN on Saturday that the shooting keeps replaying in his mind. 
 
 By all accounts, Fryberg was a popular student. Just a week ago, he had been named the high school's freshman homecoming prince, according to a YouTube video of the ceremony and accounts provided by students to CNN. 
 
 "It's weird to think about, because you see him and he is such a happy person," Pietsch said. "You never really see him be so angry and so upset. ... People were telling me who it was when I was getting in my mom's car and I was like, 'What? This is not happening. ... This is crazy.' It was just surprising to me that him out of all people would be the one." 
 
 Multiple social media accounts in Fryberg's name depict him frequently hunting and using rifles. Those accounts say he was a Native American and a member of the Tulalip Tribe. 
 
 But a Twitter account in his name gave a very different picture, that of a teenager with a broken heart. 
 
 Luton could not confirm reports that Fryberg had been bullied. But two weeks ago, according to Luton, Fryberg got into a fight after somebody said "something racist" to him.
– A shooter who opened fire in a high school near Seattle is dead, police say. He reportedly shot other students at Marysville-Pilchuck High School before taking his own life, but the details are still firming up. The Seattle Times reports that one of his victims is dead and that four other students are injured. A student at the school says the gunman, reportedly a freshman, walked up to a table in the cafeteria with four to six people and opened fire. Police say they are confident the gunman acted alone, reports CNN. A lockdown at the school, located in Washington state's Marysville, was being lifted. “Everyone just started running," recalls 14-year-old Adam Holston. "I could hear the gunshots, and my heart was racing and we didn’t know what was going on.”