THIS is the first picture of the teen gunman killed after he shot a 14-year-old boy and a girl, 16, said to be his ex.
The shooter has been identified as 17-year-old Austin Wyatt Rollins, after he walked in to a Maryland high school and pulled out a handgun.
He shot two classmates before being taken down by a hero policeman in a school corridor shootout.
His two victims are seriously ill in hospital following the early morning bloodbath today at Great Mills High School.
One of whom is said to be Jaelynn Willey, reportedly an ex-girlfriend of the shooter, but authorities have not confirmed any names.
Pupils cowered in classrooms as the school was placed in lockdown before 8am.
Mollie Davis tweeted from inside: “My school is on a very real lockdown threat and there’s already someone possibly dead. Please pray for us.”
St Mary’s County sheriff Tim Cameron said a student pulled out a handgun in the hallway before lessons began.
The shooter then exchanged fire with a school resource officer, named as Blaine Gaskill, reports NBC Washington.
The sheriff’s deputy and the teen gunman each fired once at each other. The cop was unhurt but the student was wounded and later died, the sheriff said.
It has been reported Rollins had attempted to take his own life as Gaskill fired.
The teenage girl was today in a critical condition and the boy’s condition was described as stable.
A fundraising page has been started by a family friend of Willey and has already raised more than $35,000.
Cameron said despite the quick response of the school resource officer attached to the school, two students were still shot.
He told the local News4 channel: “You train to respond to this and you hope that you never ever have to.
“This is the realisation of your worst nightmare — that, in a school, that our children could be attacked.
“And so as quickly … as that SRO responded and engaged, there’s grievous injuries to two students.”
He added: “Now begins the second phase of this operation and that’s the background and the investigation and the attempt for the school to return to normal, so to speak.”
Mollie later said she was safe. She tweeted: “The police came to my classroom and saw us to the bathroom and back and said we would be leaving soon.”
School buses could be seen lined up ready to ferry the kids away from the school in Great Mills, around 60 miles south-east of Washington DC.
Heavily armed officers wearing tactical body armour swarmed the building.
And FBI agents from Baltimore at the scene were joined by special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Parents were asked not to come to the school but to gather at another school nearby to be reunited with their children.
The shooting comes four days before the national March for Our Lives, a rally demanding greater gun control after last month’s massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.
It emerged an armed sheriff’s deputy based at that school failed to tackle the marauding teen killer. He was branded a coward by US president Donald Trump.
Before today there had been 16 confirmed school shootings in the US so far this year, according to CNN.
Maryland state governor Larry Hogan said today’s shooting should be a “call to action” for greater school safety.
He said: “I want to express my deepest gratitude to the St Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office and all of the first responders who swiftly and bravely took action to secure the school.
“The First Lady and I are praying for those who were injured, their families and loved ones, and for the entire Great Mills community as they come together to heal in the wake of this horrific situation.
“But prayers are not enough. Although our pain remains fresh and the facts remain uncertain, today’s horrible events should not be an excuse to pause our conversation about school safety.
“Instead, it must serve as a call to action.”
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Last month cops investigated threats of a shooting targeting Great Mills High School after rumours circulated on Snapchat.
It warned: “Be careful … there’s gon be a shooting at GMHS in ‘within the next few days and kids shoulkd stay home’????.”
School principal Jake Heibel told parents staff and cops had interviewed pupils and found no valid threat, but additional security was in place.
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