14-year-old pupil seems to open fire at Aubagne middle school, wounding principal and teacher

A 14-year-old pupil seems to have opened fire at Collège Joseph-Lakanal, a middle school in Aubagne east of Marseille, on Monday morning, October 12, wounding the principal and a teacher. The BBC, citing regional officials speaking to French media, says the teenager entered the school “with a shotgun inside a guitar case” and opened fire before a staff member restrained him. Al Jazeera describes the weapon as a hunting rifle hidden in a guitar case and names the school Joseph Lakanal Middle School. CNEWS and 20 Minutes name the school collège Joseph-Lakanal / Lakanal and say the pupil hid a calibre-12 hunting shotgun in a guitar case. 20 Minutes places the first shots around 9:25 a.m.; CNEWS says fire started shortly after 9 a.m.

Aubagne Mayor Jean-Pierre Squillari said no children faced harm and that the teachers received treatment for injuries that do not threaten their lives, the BBC reports. Outlets place the principal’s age at 53 and the teacher’s at 37. The BBC says the head teacher, 53, “was reportedly shot in the leg and lower back,” while the 37-year-old teacher’s thigh took a hit, and that a third person “is said to have sustained minor injuries.” Al Jazeera says a third person “was grazed” and that police described the ammunition as the kind used in 12-gauge shotguns. franceinfo says the principal and teacher took wounds to the legs and lower back, with vital prognosis not engaged. 20 Minutes, citing the Marseille prosecutor’s office via deputy prosecutor Audrey Jouaneton, says the chief of establishment took a hit to the hip and the teacher to the thigh, and that one went to La Timone hospital and the other to Aubagne hospital.

Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone gave a floor-by-floor account that the BBC and Al Jazeera both carry. Bessone said the 14-year-old wounded the head and the other teacher on the first floor, then went to the second floor and fired twice, “first in front of a teacher towards the floor, and a second time inside an occupied classroom, hitting the chalkboard,” the BBC reports. The BBC quotes Bessone: “Neither [that] teacher nor the students were injured, though they were severely shaken.” Al Jazeera paraphrases the same sequence as one or two first-floor shots that injured the principal and teacher in the legs, then two further shots on the second floor. CNEWS and 20 Minutes describe four firing sequences in total: two on the first floor that hit the principal and teacher, then a shot toward the floor in front of another teacher, then a shot inside an occupied classroom that hit the board.

A staff member restrained the boy in a school corridor, according to the city hall via the BBC; Al Jazeera quotes Mayor Squillari saying a staff member disarmed the teen before police arrived. 20 Minutes names the restrainer as the conseiller principal d’éducation (CPE) and says he mastered and disarmed the pupil as the boy came back down the stairs. Squillari said on social media, the BBC reports: “All students were immediately confined and made safe within seconds.” A psychological support unit opened on site, the BBC and franceinfo report. Squillari also told reporters, via the BBC: “The kids saw practically nothing since it happened in the hallway.” He told BFMTV, the BBC reports, that the father “had requested a meeting with the school’s educational advisor, but we don’t know any more than that.”

The Marseille prosecutor’s office opened an investigation for attempted murder, the BBC reports. CNEWS and 20 Minutes use the French charge “tentatives d’assassinat” and say the criminal brigade (brigade criminelle / DCOS) holds the file. Deputy prosecutor Audrey Jouaneton said investigators still lack enough elements to say the pupil meant to target that principal and that teacher, 20 Minutes reports. CNEWS quotes her in French saying a whole series of hypotheses remain under review, including possible talk of harassment, and that investigators had not yet established the motive at the hour of her remarks. A source close to the inquiry told 20 Minutes, in French, that for now every hypothesis sits on the table as investigators still seek to understand his motivations and whether he sought specific people. franceinfo quotes Prefect Jacques Witkowski in French: “L’élève de troisième s’est introduit dans l’établissement avec une arme à feu pour des raisons qui nous sont totalement inconnues. C’est un acte qui n’est pas lié au mouvement lycéen actuel.” The Bouches-du-Rhône police prefecture told AFP the college “n’était pas touché par le mouvement lycéen,” CNEWS reports, and the BBC says local media, citing police sources, reported that the incident did not appear related to ongoing protests over school conditions.

Police placed the pupil in custody, and CNEWS and 20 Minutes say both parents also entered garde à vue. The BBC says French media later reported that the father entered custody after a search of the family home turned up weapons; CNEWS, citing a source close to the file, said a search of the adolescent’s home ran on Monday afternoon. 20 Minutes and franceinfo say the adolescent remained unknown to police services; Witkowski told 20 Minutes, in French, that the pupil “n’est pas connu pour des faits de délinquance, de radicalisation.” Two pupils told BFMTV, the BBC reports, that a fire alarm sounded and that they then came face-to-face with the alleged shooter; one said: “He was a metre away, with his hunting rifle. He fired at the ground.” Al Jazeera quotes a student via Reuters who said a maths teacher first played down a bang as nearby construction noise before a later blast and an alarm emptied classes into the corridors.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez and Education Minister Édouard Geffray visited the scene on Monday afternoon, the BBC reports; Nuñez told reporters the school would close to pupils on Tuesday. Geffray wrote on social media, the BBC and Al Jazeera report: “This unacceptable act is yet further evidence of the rise of unchecked violence in our society, against which we must all take a stand.” French President Emmanuel Macron extended his “full solidarity and total support” to the teachers, students and parents in shock, the BBC reports, and wrote: “I salute the composure and exemplary response of the educational team, which made it possible to avoid the worst.” Al Jazeera notes that gun violence by pupils in French schools remains rare and recalls a 2017 rifle attack at a high school in southern France that wounded three students and a principal.

Mayor Squillari described the suspect as a child “just like any other,” the BBC reports. 20 Minutes says some classmates described him as disruptive in class with prior disciplinary reminders, while a Spanish teacher named Christophe said he had “nothing particular to say about his profile.” Investigators plan to examine the pupil’s phone and to test whether outside indoctrination or help played a role, 20 Minutes reports, noting that an attempted-murder opening implies investigators treat the act as premeditated. This desk could not independently confirm the motive, the exact number of rounds fired, or what the home search recovered.