- Students and teachers barricaded classrooms and grabbed scissors to defend themselves during the
Oxford High School shooting. - The local sheriff said on Tuesday that there was evidence of bullet holes in classroom doors.
Students and teachers barricaded classroom doors with desks and grabbed scissors to defend themselves during the shooting at
Some of the barricades were "struck by gunfire," Sheriff Michael Bouchard told CNN New Day, adding that he saw bullet holes in classroom doors.
Bouchard said he believes the barricades protected more students from getting injured or killed.
Oxford senior Aiden Page told Anderson Cooper on CNN that in his classroom, a bullet struck one of the desks that was barricaded against the door.
"We grabbed calculators, we grabbed scissors just in case the shooter got in and we had to attack them," Page said.
In another classroom, video shows the gunman attempting to enter the room by impersonating a sheriff. A teacher, who told the person on the other side of the door they did not want to take any risks by letting him in, instructed students to escape out of a first-floor window to safety.
"The evidence I've seen [at the school] shows he was very clearly trying to kill people, so a ruse like this wouldn't have surprised me in the way he was acting," Bouchard said on New Day.
Three students — 16-year-old Tate Myre, 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, and 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin — were killed in the shooting, while seven other students and a teacher were injured, The Associated Press reported. A 15-year-old shooting suspect is in custody.
Videos being used in the investigation show the gunman shooting people at close range, Bouchard said.
"It's chilling," Bouchard said of the videos he saw of the shooting. "It's just absolutely cold-hearted, murderous."
Bouchard said the shooting suspect in custody fired shots at least 30 times, and that the police department believes they have some of his "writings" that include his thoughts and could point to a motive.
"I want to hold this person accountable and the community needs to see that happen," Bouchard said.
The suspect in custody is refusing to speak, according to Bouchard. His parents have requested an attorney, and under Michigan law, police cannot speak to a minor without the permission of his parents.
Police detained the shooter within two minutes of arriving on scene. At the time he was taken into custody, the gunman still had seven rounds and a magazine.
"That saved lives," Bouchard said.