Student Who Shot Up Cleveland High School Had Troubled Past
Posted October 11, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
His name was Asa Coon and he was just 14 when he took his own life. But the troubled student wanted to take a number of others with him before he died. Coon is the teen who entered a Cleveland, Ohio school on Wednesday armed with two revolvers and opened fire, squeezing off eight shots at those inside.
Three teens and two teachers were wounded in the attack, but all survived the onslaught. Police later found Coon dead after he turned one of his weapons on himself, the final victim of his own rampage.
The troubled youngster’s past sounds suspiciously like others who have committed such terrible violence on their campuses before. He was a loner who liked to dress in Goth-style black. He was frequently involved in fights and had been suspended from school in the past for using abusive and foul language with teachers. And he frequently talked of ambushing staff and students – but no one ever thought he’d actually do it.
It appears his last suspension was the literal trigger that touched off this tragedy. Coon had been told to stay home after fighting with a fellow student over religion. He told his foe that he didn’t believe in God – just rock star Marilyn Manson. That resulted in an altercation that earned the teen his second suspension in two years.
“When he got suspended, he was like ‘I got something for you all,'” student Frances Henderson recalls. “I guess this is what he had.”
“He’s crazy,” adds fellow teen Doneisha LeVert. “He threatened to blow up our school. He threatened to stab everybody. We didn’t think nothing of it.”
The first person Coon shot was a 14-year-old, who punched him in the face prior to the shooting spree. He “came out of the bathroom and bumped Mike and he (Mike) punched him in his face,” remembered witness Rasheem Smith. “Mike started walking. He shot Mike in the side.”
Eighteen-year-old Darnell Rodgers was next. He was walking up a stairwell when a tide of panicked students got in his way. “They were screaming, and they were saying, ‘Oh my God! Oh my God!’ I knew something was wrong, but thought that it was probably just a fight, so I just kept going.” Then he felt a bullet go into his arm.
A third student remains in hospital in unknown condition.
The other victims were both teachers, including Coon’s 42-year-old history instructor and David Kachadourian, his math professor. “I never felt personally threatened or personally at risk,” the latter relates. “I had concerns about him, yes. He seemed like an angry young man. I did not fear for my own safety.”
Coon had a long history of trouble in his short life. When was just 12 years of age, he was charged with domestic violence for slapping his mother, who had tried to break up a fight with his sister. He was suspended last year for trying to harm another student.
Experts aren’t sure how he got into the building, but note it’s another sign that those who hear students make threats against other classmates or teachers should take them seriously and alert adults, so they can take action before it’s too late.
