Boy, 14, Slays 6 in Family, Is Killed by Uncle

A 14-year-old boy shot and killed six members of his family--including his parents and three brothers--early today before his uncle overpowered him and killed him, authorities said.

The shootings started about 5 a.m. in the tiny town of Elkland, about 20 miles northeast of Springfield, said a spokeswoman in the Webster County prosecutor’s office in Marshfield.

The boy, identified as Kirk Buckner, apparently shot and killed his mother, father and three brothers about 5 a.m. and then drove about five miles to his aunt and uncle’s home. There he killed his aunt and fought with his uncle, who was wounded. Authorities were not sure how the boy was killed or how the uncle was wounded.

‘A Family Situation’

“It’s a family situation,” said Ellen DeHart, secretary in the prosecutor’s office. “It was a teen-age son and he apparently shot his family.”

“He was no troublemaker,” said Audie DeHart, principal of Marshfield Junior High School, which Kirk Buckner attended for three years. “This has come as a shock to us. I visited with him often, formally and informally, and he was cooperative and truthful.

“He didn’t even have a fistfight when he was in junior high. There was nothing in his actions that would tip a person off to something like this,” he said.

Killed were his mother and father, Julie and Steve Buckner; his three brothers, Tim, a second-grader, Dennis, a third-grader, and a brother who was under 2 years old, and his aunt, Julie Schnick, according to the Webster County Sheriff’s Department.

The uncle, James Schnick, was admitted to a Springfield hospital with a gunshot wound to the stomach.

The Schnicks’ two children, ages 8 and 6, were staying with their grandparents today, said the pastor of Timberridge Church, where the Schnicks were members.