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Principal killed at Wisconsin school; 9th-grader charged
Eric Hainstock, the 15-year-old suspect, had complained about being teased by other students, authorities say.
A teenager who pried open his family's gun cabinet brought two weapons to his rural school Friday and shot the principal to death after a struggle with adults and other students, authorities said.
No one else was hurt.
Eric Hainstock, 15, was taken into custody and charged as an adult with murder, District Attorney Patricia Barrett said.
Authorities said the teen had complained about being teased by other students and decided to confront teachers and the principal using a shotgun and handgun taken from his parents' bedroom. The shooting also came one day after Weston Schools Principal John Klang gave him a disciplinary warning for having tobacco, according to a criminal complaint.
Witnesses said Hainstock walked in with the shotgun before classes began. A custodian, teachers and students wrestled with him, but he broke through, took out the handgun and shot Klang three times, Sheriff Randy Stammen said.
The custodian said the teen was a special-education student who told him he was there to kill someone, but did not say who.
"He was calm, but he was on a mission," said Dave Thompson, 43, who also has two children at the school.
Sophomore Shelly Rupp, 16, described Hainstock as a freshman with few friends and said he was "just weird in the head."
"He always used to kid around about bringing things to school and hurting kids," she said at a gas station nearby where students and townspeople had gathered.
Thompson said Hainstock first pointed a shotgun in a teacher's face. Thompson grabbed the gun, but the student then appeared to be reaching for another weapon, so Thompson and the teacher took cover. Thompson ran into a kitchen to call 911.
Klang then confronted the gunman. After the shots were fired, the principal, who was wounded, somehow wrestled him to the ground and swept the gun away, the complaint said.
Klang, 49, was shot in the head, chest and leg, authorities said. He died hours later at a hospital in Madison.
Sheriff Randy Stammen praised Klang's swift action. "The heroics of the people involved in this can't be understated," he said.
Hainstock said a group of kids had teased him by calling him names and rubbing up against him, the complaint said, and that he felt teachers and the principal would not do anything about it.
The complaint also said Hainstock had told a friend a few days earlier that Klang would not "make it through homecoming," referring to festivities planned for the school's homecoming weekend.
On Thursday, the principal had given Hainstock a disciplinary warning for having tobacco on school grounds, which was likely to mean an in-school suspension.
One student told a local reporter that Hainstock had recently been suspended for throwing a stapler at a teacher and for throwing a chair at the principal.
"I never thought [he] was capable of shooting anybody," she said.
Hainstock could get life in prison if convicted of murder, Barrett, the district attorney, said. Wisconsin does not have the death penalty.
Detectives executed a search warrant at Hainstock's house late Friday, the sheriff said. The teen was scheduled to make an initial court appearance Monday. It was unclear whether he had an attorney.
Children from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade attend the small school near Cazenovia, a community of about 300 people about 70 miles northwest of Madison.
Klang and his three children graduated from Weston Schools. He was once a teacher, then farmed for about 18 years before returning to teaching and taking over as principal in 2004, his father, Don Klang, said. The younger Klang was being groomed to take over as superintendent next year.
Laurie Rhea, 42, said the principal spent last weekend at the gas station washing cars for a homecoming fundraiser.
"All the kids just loved him," she said.
High school students were offered counseling after the shooting, authorities said. Younger students were bused home. The homecoming parade, football game and dance were canceled or postponed.
Weston High School also lost a student earlier Friday in a car accident, a school official said.
The shooting took place two days after a gunman took six students hostage in a Colorado high school and killed one of them before committing suicide.
Source: CNN.com
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