Two dead, two injured in US school shooting

LOS ANGELES - Agence France-Presse

Police secure the scene near Sparks Middle School after a shooting in Sparks, Nev., on Monday, Oct. 21, 2013. AP Photo

A teacher was killed and two students critically injured in a school shooting Oct. 21 in Nevada, which also left the schoolboy gunman dead, police and reports said.

The shooter, reported to be 13 or 14 years old, opened fire near a basketball court at the Sparks Middle School in Reno, a witness said.

"The one deceased is a staff member of the school," Washoe County School District police chief Mike Mieras told reporters, adding: "The other deceased individual at this point in time appears to be a student-slash-suspect in this case." Two students rushed to Renown Regional Hospital were listed in critical condition, said hospital spokeswoman Angela Rambo, cited by NBC news after the shooting at around 7:15 am (14:15 GMT).

Mieras said later that one of the students had gone through surgery, and the other was "doing well." A teenage witness described seeing a fellow student, wearing school uniform, shoot a teacher in the chest.

"We were by the basketball court, and we heard a loud pop, and everybody was screaming," 13-year-old Kyle Nucum told the Reno Gazette Journal, saying a teacher went to investigate. "I thought it was a firecracker at first.

"The student was pointing a gun at the teacher, after the teacher told him to put it down... and then the student fired a shot at the teacher and the teacher fell and everybody ran away.
 
"We ran across the field to get somewhere safe, and while we were running we heard about four or five more shots." US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who represents Nevada, added: "My thoughts are with teachers, parents and students at Sparks Middle School who experienced a traumatic morning. "Nevada mourns with them," he said on his Twitter feed.
 
Separately one man was killed and three guards shot and injured at a Las Vegas nightclub, police said.
 
A man paid to enter Drai's nightclub in Bally's casino on the Nevada gambling city's famed Strip in the early hours, but a short time later asked for his money back.
 
A fight broke out, during which three security guards were injured, and a patron who tried to help subdue the gunman was killed, according to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department spokesman John Sheahan.