Befuddled and petrified, students and teachers hid in the classrooms as they heard gunshots ring out multiple times at their Western Australian school.
Just before midday on Wednesday at Atlantis Beach Baptist College in Perth’s outer north, a teenager fired three rounds from his rifle, allegedly from the school’s car park. One shot hit the inside of a building with people inside.
Terrified students hid under desks. Some children called triple zero to report the incident. The school was plunged into lockdown.
Police rushed to the school at about 11.50 a.m. and arrested the 15-year-old boy, who was a former student of the private school. Police body cam shows an officer pushing the teenager to the ground before handcuffing him.
It was unclear when the former student left the school, or what the situation was, the police noted. He is now in custody.
This is the first time a school shooting occurred in Western Australia or anywhere in Australia, WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said, adding that no one was injured.
“I was very shocked this occurred in WA,” he told reporters. “As police commissioner, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The boy was armed with a .243 and .22 calibre rifles, which he had allegedly taken from a locked gun cabinet. Both were licensed to his home address and registered to the boy’s father.
“We will look into every aspect during this investigation to understand how a 15-year-old person is allegedly in possession of two long-arm rifles and has shot into a school in these terrible circumstances,” Blanch said.
“It’s fair to say with the investigation conducted by major crime that this will be a very thorough investigation. That means all electric devices, associates, parents.”
The investigation is ongoing. The boy’s parents have yet to be interviewed.
“This is one of the rarest incidents in Australia … I truly believe this is a rare incident and a one-off,” Blanch added.
“What I’m really pleased about is the response from the school and the response from the community.”
‘I Was Scared, I Was Nervous’
Lacey, a student at the school, was on her way to a maths class when the first shot rang out. She saw some students reporting to teachers about an active shooter in the parking lot and getting told off. But Lacey doubted that they were lying.
“I was confused because I didn’t think they would lie about this sort of thing since it is a serious thing,” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
“I couldn’t believe it was happening. I wouldn’t expect something like this to happen in Perth. It’s crazy,” Lacey said.
“I was scared, I was nervous, I was sad. There were a lot of emotions flowing around with other students.”
Lacey was among the students hiding in a storage room at the back of their class.
“There were doors on either side with two male teachers that were either side of us, and we were all cramped up in there,” she said.
Lacey said the group waited in the storage area for about 30 minutes until confirmation was received that police had arrested the boy.
Parents were informed about the incident via an emergency SMS.McGowan Pushes For More Gun Control
WA Premier Mark McGowan compared the incident to a US-style school shooting, saying it was “unthinkable” that it could have happened at a WA school.
“This is extraordinary stuff. This is the sort of thing you see occurring in the deep south of America,” he told reporters during a visit to the school.“We are very lucky no one was killed,” he added. “The bullets went close. It’s a terrible, terrible thing, and it could have been so much worse.
McGowan also flagged an overhaul of the state’s gun laws, saying, “There are 360,000 guns in WA [and] that’s way too many.”
“We’re going to deal with it ... and that means there will be tougher controls.
“Whatever we do as a country, never go down the pathway that America has ... with thousands and thousands of people every year getting killed by guns.”
Under McGowan, WA is already in the middle of introducing the strictest firearms laws in the country.
From July 1, the state will outlaw 56 types of firearms, 19 calibres of ammunition, 248 licensed firearms, and long-range firearms and ammunition with extraordinary power and precision. In addition, anyone purchasing a firearm must undergo mental health checks.
“If you do own firearms, you have a responsibility to keep them in a gun safe and make sure the keys are not accessible,” McGowan urged.
WA’s effort to tighten gun control comes despite the low gun deaths and injuries rate in the state, with twenty people having died from gunshot wounds last year. In Australia, the number has also decreased for the last two decades, from 1.84 death per 100,000 people in 2000 to 0.9 death per 100,000 people in 2019, according to Gun.Policy.org.
This is a stark contrast to America, where were 12.09 deaths per 100,000 people in 2019.
