St. Louis School shooter pictured as content of chilling note he left before murders is revealed

 

Wednesday, 26 October 2022 – The teenager who killed two people at his St. Louis high school was pictured in a yearbook photo.

The picture of Orlando Harris, 19, was confirmed by police on Tuesday, October 25, a day after he carried out the deadly shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School.

The 19-year-old who gunned down a fellow student and gym teacher, wore a white hoodie and a black jacket in the photo that was widely shared on the internet before authorities confirmed it was Harris.

Details of a chilling note written by Harris where he called his life a “perfect storm for a mass shooter,” has been released.

The note was left in Harris’ car before he stormed the high school with an AR-15-style rifle and more than 600 rounds of ammunition. Harris killed tenth-grader Alexandria Bell and 61-year-old physical education teacher Jean Kuczka before he was killed in a shootout with police. 

In his note, Harris complained about not having friends, family or a girlfriend.

“I’ve never had a social life. I’ve been an isolated loner my entire life,” Harris wrote.

Harris reportedly screamed, “You’re all going to f—ing die!” and said he was “tired of this damn school” as he launched his deadly attack

Despite the warning signs, one of Harris’s teachers claimed he was a friendly and outgoing student.

Lauren Ogundipe, the school’s theater director and teacher of theater arts, told the St. Louis Dispatch that Harris was a helpful and talkative teen passionate about the theater department.

“He would laugh and joke with members of his graduating class,” Ogundipe said. “He would talk with different teachers, he would talk about his school life — he didn’t really talk about his home life. He would talk about girls he was interested in.”

“He was helpful. He showed himself as a helpful servant of the school. If something was needed, a skill he’d obtained in the arts, he showed himself as ready, willing and able to lend a hand,” Ogundipe added.

“If something needed to be moved physically … he would show up on his own without being asked.”