School Worker Fires Shots; 1 Hurt

CHARLESTON, W. Va. -- A school board meeting erupted in violence Thursday when a school maintenance worker doused two audience members with gasoline, then fired several shots from an assault-style rifle, wounding one person, police said.

Several people quickly subdued Richard Dean “Rusty” Bright, 58, at the Kanawha County Board of Education meeting, police Chief Jerry Pauley said. Bright, of Rand, W. Va., was charged with malicious wounding and wanton endangerment.

About 20 people were attending the meeting at the board’s Charleston offices when Bright entered with three plastic buckets of gasoline and a bag with a Chinese-made SKS assault-style rifle, police and witnesses said.

After splashing gasoline over two people, Bright pulled the rifle from the bag and fired several rounds, police said. One shot struck 56-year-old Karen Taylor of Charleston in the lower abdomen.

“When he pulled the weapon, some people who were there grabbed him and put him to the ground,” Pauley said.

Taylor, also a school employee, was taken to a hospital. Pauley said her injury was not life-threatening.

No other injuries were reported. The two people doused with gasoline were treated at the scene and released.

Board President William Raglin said Bright tried to light the gasoline after dousing the two people. But when the gas wouldn’t ignite, he pulled out the rifle and started shooting.

Bright made an appearance on the two felony charges before county Magistrate Kim Aaron, who set bail at $250,000.

Bright told Aaron he has been on sick leave from his maintenance job, and that his benefits were running out.