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Authorities: Student kills three, wounds eight at Michigan school

A 15-year-old sophomore opened fire at his Michigan high school on Tuesday, killing three students, including a 16-year-old boy who died in a deputy’s patrol car on the way to a hospital, authorities said. Eight other people were wounded, some critically.

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Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said late Tuesday that investigators were still trying to determine a motive for the shooting at Oxford High School in Oxford Township, a community of about 22,000 people roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Detroit.

“The person that’s got the most insight and the motive is not talking,” Bouchard said at a news conference.

The suspect’s father had bought the 9mm Sig Sauer used in the shooting on Friday, Bouchard said, adding that he did not know why the man bought the gun. Bouchard said the suspect had practiced shooting with the gun and “posted pictures of the target and the weapon.”

The three students who were killed were 16-year-old Tate Myre, 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, and 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin. Bouchard said Myre died in a patrol car as a deputy tried to get him to a hospital.

Bouchard said a teacher who received a graze wound to the shoulder was discharged from the hospital, but seven students ranging in age from 14 to 17 remained hospitalized with gunshot wounds, including 14-year-old girl who was on a ventilator after surgery.

Undersheriff Mike McCabe said earlier that authorities were aware of allegations circulating on social media that there had been threats of a shooting at the roughly 1,700-student school before Tuesday’s attack, but he cautioned against believing that narrative until investigators can look into it.

He also downplayed the significance of an incident in early November when a deer head was thrown off the school roof, which he said was “absolutely unrelated” to the shooting. The vandalism prompted school administrators to post two letters to parents on the school’s website earlier in November, saying they were responding to rumors of a threat against the school but had found none.

Authorities didn’t immediately release the shooting suspect’s name, but Bouchard said deputies arrested him within minutes of arriving at the school in response to a flood of 911 calls about the attack, which happened shortly before 1 p.m.

He said the deputies arrested him after he emerged from a bathroom with the gun, which he said had seven rounds of ammunition still in it.

“I believe they literally saved lives having taken down the suspect with a loaded firearm while still in the building,” Bouchard said.

McCabe said the suspect’s parents visited their son where he’s being held and advised him not to talk to investigators, as is his right. Police must seek permission from a juvenile suspect’s parents or guardian to speak with them, he added.

Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald issued a statement Tuesday evening saying her office expects to issue charges quickly and that an update would be given Wednesday.

Bouchard said the suspect had no prior run-ins with his department and he wasn’t aware of any disciplinary history at school.

“That’s part of our investigation to determine what happened prior to this event and if some signs were missed how were they missed and why,” he said.

President Joe Biden, before delivering remarks at a community college in Rosemount, Minnesota, said: “As we learn the full details, my heart goes out to the families enduring the unimaginable grief of losing a loved one.”

The school was placed on lockdown after the attack, with some children sheltering in locked classrooms while officers searched the premises. They were later taken to a nearby Meijer grocery store to be picked up by their parents.

The district said in a statement that all of its schools would be closed for the rest of the week.

Isabel Flores, a 15-year-old ninth grader, told WJBK-TV that she and other students heard gunshots and saw another student bleeding from the face. They then ran from the area through the rear of the school, she said.

Authorities said they were searching the suspect’s cellphone, school video footage and social media posts for any evidence of a possible motive.

School administrators had posted two letters to parents on the school’s website in November, saying they were responding to rumors of a threat against the school following a bizarre vandalism incident.

According to a Nov. 4 letter written by Principal Steve Wolf, someone threw a deer head into a courtyard from the school’s roof, painted several windows on the roof with red acrylic paint and used the same paint on concrete near the school building during the early morning hours.

Without specifically referencing that incident, a second post on Nov. 12 assured “there has been no threat to our building nor our students.”

Both the sheriff and undersheriff emphasized that Tuesday’s shooting was unrelated to the deer head or any earlier investigation by their office.

“That was a different incident, different student,” McCabe said.

A concerned parent, Robin Redding, said her son, Treshan Bryant, is a 12th grader at the school but stayed home Tuesday. Redding said her son had heard threats that there could be a shooting.

“This couldn’t be just random,” she said.

Bryant said he texted several younger cousins in the morning and they said they didn’t want to go to school, and he got a bad feeling. He asked his mom if he could do his assignments online.

Bryant said he had heard vague threats “for a long time now” about plans for a shooting.

At a vigil at Lakepoint Community Church on Tuesday night, Leeann Dersa choked back tears as she hugged friends and neighbors. Dersa has lived nearly all of her 73 years in Oxford and her grandchildren attended the high school.

“Scared us all something terrible. It’s awful,” Dersa said of the shooting.

Pastor Jesse Holt said news of the shooting flooded in to him and his wife, including texts from some of the 20 to 25 students who are among the 400-member congregation.

“Some were very scared, hiding under their desks and texting us, ‘We’re safe, we’re OK. We heard gunshots, but we’re OK.’ They were trying to calm us, at least that’s how it felt,” he said.

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World

Goldman cuts Israeli shekel forecasts on politics, intervention

Strategists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have revised their forecasts to reflect a weaker shekel on renewed concerns that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial plan will increase pressure on the currency and the central bank won’t intervene to support it.

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Comments by central bank Deputy Governor Andrew Abir last week that interest rates need to be the main tightening tool have downplayed the “potential for FX interventions, the strategists said in a report on Friday. The shekel slumped 2.3 percent last week after parliament passed a new national budget, which granted more funding to the nation’s ultra-Orthodox in order to secure the bloc’s loyalty to his right-wing coalition.

Goldman revised its forecasts of the shekel to 3.70 and 3.60 against the dollar in the next three and 12 months, respectively, compared with 3.50 and 3.40 previously. While that’s still stronger than the current level, the strategists said they expect volatility around their estimates to “remain elevated. The shekel rose 0.3 percent to 3.7178 as of 2:50 p.m. in Jerusalem on Monday.

“With limited policy support, we think domestic political developments will remain in the driver’s seat for the shekel, Goldman’s strategists, including Kamakshya Trivedi, said in the report.

The shekel’s correlation with the performance of global technology stocks began to break down in January amid massive protests against Netanyahu’s plans to give politicians more control over the judiciary and its appointments. His decision in late March to delay the plan had provided some reprieve for the currency, until last week.

The shekel trades at a more than 10 percent discount to Goldman’s estimated fair value of around 3.3 per dollar, the strategists said.

In April, Moody’s Investors Service lowered the outlook on the nation’s A1 rating to stable from positive, citing a “deterioration of Israel’s governance.

“If market participants and tech investors continue to grow more concerned about domestic political developments and their impact on institutional quality, then risk premium may build further in the currency, the strategists at Goldman said.

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Elon Musk to visit China this week: Sources

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk is expected to visit China this week, three people with knowledge of the matter said, in what would be his first trip to the country in three years.
Musk is expected to meet senior Chinese officials and to visit Tesla’s Shanghai plant, two of the sources said.
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It was not immediately clear who Musk would meet and what they would discuss. The people with knowledge of the trip declined to be named as the matter is private.
Tesla and China’s State Council Information Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters reported in March that Musk was planning a trip to China and seeking a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang as early as April, with the exact timing subject to Li’s availability.
China is Tesla’s second-largest market after the United States, and its Shanghai plant is the electric carmaker’s largest production hub.
Musk also owns social media platform Twitter, which is banned in China, although some people access it via virtual private networks (VPNs).
The trip would mark Musk’s first in China since he set the internet abuzz by dancing on stage during an event at Tesla’s Shanghai factory in early 2020.
It would also come at a time when Tesla is grappling with multiple issues, including intensifying competition with Chinese automakers that are exporting their China-made electric vehicles as demand in the world’s largest auto market weakens.
Tesla has not yet given any update on its plans to increase output by 450,000 vehicles a year at its Shanghai plant, although it said in April it would build a factory in Shanghai to produce Megapack energy storage products.
The company has submitted plans to local authorities to expand capacity for producing powertrains at the Shanghai plant to 1.75 million units annually.
China’s state planner has been struggling with a capacity glut in its auto industry with more than 100 players and has been cautious about approving new production capacity.
Musk told CNBC earlier this month that “there are some constraints on our ability to expand in China.” He added: “It’s not a demand issue.”
In the same interview, Musk said tensions between the United States and China “should be a concern for everyone.”
Tesla is building a plant in Mexico expected to produce a lower-cost electric car built on its next-generation platform.
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World

Iran set to unveil hypersonic missile ‘soon’: IRGC commander

Iran is preparing to unveil a hypersonic missile in the near future, a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander said on Monday.

This comes after Iran last week unveiled a new ballistic missile capable of reaching a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) and carrying warheads weighing over a ton.

“The hypersonic missile has passed its tests and will be unveiled soon,” the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted Amirali Hajizadeh, head of the IRGC’s aerospace unit, as saying.

“This new missile is capable of passing through all missile defense systems. It targets the enemy’s anti-missile systems and is a big leap in the field of missiles,” he added.

“The hypersonic missile has a high speed and can maneuver in and out of the atmosphere.”

In November, Hajizadeh made the initial claim that Iran had developed a hypersonic missile. The claim was met with doubts from Washington, with a Pentagon spokesperson saying that the US was “skeptical” of the assertion.

Hypersonic missiles can fly at speeds at least five times faster than the speed of sound, following intricate trajectories that make interception challenging. Unlike ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles travel at low altitudes in the atmosphere, potentially enabling them to reach targets more swiftly.

On Thursday, Iran unveiled the Kheibar missile, which is an updated version of the Khorramshahr, the country’s longest-range missile to date.

State news agency IRNA described the Kheibar as “a liquid fuel missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers and a 1,500 kilogram warhead.”

The US described Iran’s missile program as a “serious threat” following the unveiling.

“Iran’s development, and proliferation of, ballistic missiles poses a serious threat to regional and international security and remains a significant non-proliferation challenge,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.