Teen Held in Fatal Spree at Student Dance

A 14-year-old boy was charged with homicide Saturday in a shooting at an eighth-grade graduation dance that killed a science teacher and wounded three others.

Andrew Wurst, a student at Parker Middle School, was charged as an adult in Friday’s shooting of teacher John Gillette, 48, on a patio outside a banquet hall.

He then walked inside and fired several more shots, police spokesman Mark Zaleski said.

Two 14-year-old boys were wounded; one was grazed across the abdomen and the other was shot in the foot. Both were treated at a hospital and released. A female teacher was grazed by a bullet and did not need medical treatment.

Wurst left the building through a rear exit and was arrested shortly thereafter, Zaleski said.

Teenagers were dancing to “My Heart Will Go On,” from the movie “Titanic,” when the first of several shots rang out at Nick’s Place, near Edinboro, about 100 miles north of Pittsburgh.

Adam Sarren, 15, said the noises sounded like a cap gun.

“It was pretty horrible. It was like a nightmare,” he said. “We were all scared and crying and praying.”

Gillette, a teacher for 27 years, died after being shot in the head.

Wurst, who allegedly carried a .25-caliber handgun and a small amount of marijuana, was caught in a field behind the hall by Nick’s Place owner James Strand.

Wurst, of nearby McKean, was charged with criminal homicide, three counts each of aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. He also faces drug and gun charges. He was jailed without bond. School officials did not know what motivated the shooting at the dance, which had the theme “I Had the Time of My Life.”

A month ago, Wurst joked about killing people and then committing suicide, said two boys who described themselves as friends. They did not take him seriously.

Sarren, who said he knew Wurst, described him as a loner who never smiled.

Teacher Dennis Kitchen said Gillette, a father of three, had recently considered retiring.