ROCKFORD, Washington: A shooter opened fire at a high school in Washington state Wednesday, killing one person and injuring at least three others, authorities said.
Brian Schaeffer of the Spokane Fire Department told reporters that one person died at Freeman High School in Rockford, south of Spokane, and three injured victims were taken to a hospital.
Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Children’s Hospital received three pediatric patients, spokeswoman Nicole Stewart said. They were in stable condition, and family members were with them, she said.
Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said at the scene that the shooter was in custody, The Spokesman-Review newspaper reported.
Cheryl Moser said her son, a freshman at Freeman High School, called her from a classroom after hearing shots fired.
“He called me and said, ‘Mom there are gunshots.’ He sounded so scared. I’ve never heard him like that,” Moser told the newspaper. “You never think about something happening like this at a small school.”
Ambulances and a Lifeflight helicopter were sent to the school.
Stephanie Lutje told The Associated Press that she was relieved to hear her son was safe after his high school near Freeman was put on lockdown. She commended the school district for its communication with parents.
“It’s been amazing, within probably 15-20 minutes of hearing about it, I’d already received a phone call, I’d already received a text message saying that their school is OK,” she said.
She still worried for others she knew, including a co-worker who had yet to hear from her son, a sophomore at Freeman.
“My stomach’s in knots right now,” she said.
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1 dead, 3 injured Washington state high school shooting
1 dead, 3 injured Washington state high school shooting
UN to approve sanction exemptions on North Korea aid projects: sources
SEOUL: The UN Security Council sanctions committee on North Korea is to give exemptions for humanitarian aid projects in the impoverished country, diplomatic sources in Seoul told AFP on Friday.
The nuclear-armed country is under multiple sets of sanctions over its weapons programs and has long struggled with its moribund state-managed economy and chronic food shortages.
The 17 humanitarian assistance projects are all being implemented by major international organizations such as UNICEF, or by NGOs from South Korea and the United States, the sources said.
Analysts say the move would allow those groups to provide humanitarian aid, such as nutritional supplements, medical equipment and water purification systems, to North Korea.
A foreign ministry official said Seoul has made “various efforts” to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches the North, regardless of politics.
“We hope that North Korea will respond positively to our government’s efforts for peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula,” the official said.
The sources spoke hours after a senior South Korean official said “new progress” on North Korea could come within days.
The foreign ministry official’s comments came while discussing US President Donald Trump’s scheduled trip to China in April.
Trump made repeated overtures to Pyongyang’s leader Kim Jong Un during a barnstorming tour of Asia last year, saying he was “100 percent” open to a meeting.
He even bucked decades of US policy by conceding that North Korea was “sort of a nuclear power.”
North Korea did not respond to Trump’s offer, and has repeatedly said it will never give up its nuclear weapons.
Trump met North Korea’s Kim three times during his first term, once famously declaring that they were “in love,” in an effort to reach a denuclearization deal.
- Landmark congress -
However, a planned summit in Hanoi in 2019 fell through over differences about what Pyongyang would get in return for giving up its nuclear weapons, and no progress has been made between the two countries since then.
Seoul and Washington reaffirmed their commitment this week to North Korea’s “complete denuclearization” and cooperation on Seoul’s nuclear-powered submarine plan, a move that has previously drawn an angry response from the North.
Pyongyang has also drawn much closer to Moscow, with its deployment of troops to aid Russia’s war against Ukraine.
It has sent thousands of troops to fight for Moscow and analysts say Russia is giving North Korea military technology, food and energy supplies in return, allowing it to sidestep tough international sanctions.
North Korea is set to hold a landmark congress of its ruling party soon, its first in five years.
Kim ordered the “expansion” and modernization of the North’s missile production ahead of the gathering.
The nuclear-armed country is under multiple sets of sanctions over its weapons programs and has long struggled with its moribund state-managed economy and chronic food shortages.
The 17 humanitarian assistance projects are all being implemented by major international organizations such as UNICEF, or by NGOs from South Korea and the United States, the sources said.
Analysts say the move would allow those groups to provide humanitarian aid, such as nutritional supplements, medical equipment and water purification systems, to North Korea.
A foreign ministry official said Seoul has made “various efforts” to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches the North, regardless of politics.
“We hope that North Korea will respond positively to our government’s efforts for peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula,” the official said.
The sources spoke hours after a senior South Korean official said “new progress” on North Korea could come within days.
The foreign ministry official’s comments came while discussing US President Donald Trump’s scheduled trip to China in April.
Trump made repeated overtures to Pyongyang’s leader Kim Jong Un during a barnstorming tour of Asia last year, saying he was “100 percent” open to a meeting.
He even bucked decades of US policy by conceding that North Korea was “sort of a nuclear power.”
North Korea did not respond to Trump’s offer, and has repeatedly said it will never give up its nuclear weapons.
Trump met North Korea’s Kim three times during his first term, once famously declaring that they were “in love,” in an effort to reach a denuclearization deal.
- Landmark congress -
However, a planned summit in Hanoi in 2019 fell through over differences about what Pyongyang would get in return for giving up its nuclear weapons, and no progress has been made between the two countries since then.
Seoul and Washington reaffirmed their commitment this week to North Korea’s “complete denuclearization” and cooperation on Seoul’s nuclear-powered submarine plan, a move that has previously drawn an angry response from the North.
Pyongyang has also drawn much closer to Moscow, with its deployment of troops to aid Russia’s war against Ukraine.
It has sent thousands of troops to fight for Moscow and analysts say Russia is giving North Korea military technology, food and energy supplies in return, allowing it to sidestep tough international sanctions.
North Korea is set to hold a landmark congress of its ruling party soon, its first in five years.
Kim ordered the “expansion” and modernization of the North’s missile production ahead of the gathering.
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