KNOXVILLE, Tennessee - A 14-year-old high school freshman shot and killed an assistant principal and wounded two colleagues on Tuesday when they confronted the boy about reports he had a gun, police said

Assistant principal Ken Bruce died, and two other administrators at Campbell County high school in Jacksboro near Knoxville were wounded by the bespectacled student, who was armed with a .22 caliber weapon, said Charles Scott, chief deputy with the Campbell County Sheriff said.

The shooting took place in the principal`s offices where the boy was brought and confronted about reports circulating at the school that he was carrying a gun, Scott said.

The boy was being treated for a hand injury suffered in the ensuing scuffle, he said.

Televised pictures of the wiry youth showed him in handcuffs with what appeared to be blood splotches on his clothes.

A Campbell County juvenile court judge ordered the boy held. He could be charged as an adult.

The principal at the school was in serious condition and another assistant principal at the school was in critical condition at a Knoxville hospital, about 30 miles south of Jacksboro, hospital officials said.

No students were injured at the 1,300-pupil school, which draws from small towns in the mountainous region, said Gail Parks of the Campbell County school district.

It was the latest in a long list of U.S. school shootings.

In March, high school student Jeff Weise of Minnesota`s Red Lake Indian reservation shot and killed his grandfather, a companion, a school security guard, five students, and finally himself.


Reuters
sections: Accidents, World News