Woman Opens Fire on Class; Boy, 8, Dead

A woman walked into a second-grade classroom and opened fire with a handgun today, killing an 8-year-old boy and critically wounding five other people before barricading herself in a nearby home after shooting a young man, authorities said.

The woman “just walked into the classroom, went past the teacher who was there, indicated the gun was real and began firing at random,” said Winnetka Police Chief Herbert Timm.

The woman fled Hubbard Woods Elementary School and went to a home several blocks away. A 22-year-old man was wounded when he tried to wrestle a gun away from the woman, but he and four other people in the house were able to escape, said Joe Sumner, director of operations for police.

Sumner said a negotiating team was unable to establish contact with the woman. No motive for the shootings was immediately known.

Parents Rush to School

Police recovered a .32-caliber handgun from the school bathroom, and the woman was believed to also have a .22-caliber gun and a third, unidentified weapon, Sumner said.

Police said the woman, believed to be 31, had opened fire at the school without warning at 10:45 a.m. The shooting ended 15 minutes later.

Parents rushed to the school and gathered outside, many of them weeping as they waited for word of their children. School officials said they will keep the remaining children in school until the end of the day.

Sumner said the woman barricaded inside the home used three different names, one of which was Laurie Dann. The FBI said it has an “investigative interest” in a woman of the same name.

Boy Dies at Hospital

Four children were taken by ambulance to Evanston Hospital, and two children and one adult were being treated at Highland Park Hospital, officials said.

“We have two girls and two boys. They’re all critical, between the ages of 7 and 9,” Evanston Hospital spokeswoman Mary Harris said. “Three are in the operating room, and one is in the emergency room.”

Three of the children suffered chest wounds and a fourth suffered a neck wound, Evanston Hospital officials said.

One 8-year-old boy died at Highland Park Hospital, said hospital spokeswoman Sue Masaracchia. One other boy and a 22-year-old man are in critical condition, spokesman Mark Newton said.