St. Louis police on Monday released a detailed report about a 2022 school shooting that left a student and teacher dead, publicly revealing for the first time the gunman’s struggle with his mental health and hospitalizations over suicide attempts.
The 456-page document also outlines concerns raised by Orlando Harris’ family and their attempts to get help.
Tanya Ward, the 19-year-old gunman’s mother, told agents that during his first two years at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School things seemed “normal.” Everything changed after the Covid pandemic, the report states, noting that Harris’ “heart wasn’t in it anymore after he went back to school after being out of school for an entire year.”
Harris graduated from the school in 2021. On Oct. 24, 2022, he allegedly opened fire at the high school, killing health teacher Jean Kuczka and 15-year-old Alexzandria Bell. Multiple other people were injured and hospitalized.
Students stand in a parking lot near the Central Visual & Performing Arts High School in St. Louis, on Oct. 24, 2022. David Carson / ABACA via Reuters file
Ward told agents that her son had attempted suicide two times and contemplated it once, according to the report. The first time was in August 2021, a few weeks before he was supposed to leave for an out-of-state college, the report says. The police were called after his coworkers found a note that he allegedly left at his job.
The report further states that Harris was taken to the hospital and placed in a psychiatric facility. He was eventually released and regularly saw a therapist thereafter.
Around Thanksgiving of 2021, he allegedly contemplated suicide, according to the report. He told his therapist who then instructed Ward to have him admitted, which she did, the report states. He was released before Christmas of that year, it notes.
Harris allegedly attempted suicide again during the summer of 2022, according to the report. He was immediately hospitalized.
“After he was released from the hospital, Orlando H. advised Ward that he was not going back to the hospital and stopped contact with the therapist,” the report states.
A little over a week before the shooting, the family found out that Harris was having gun and ammunition packages delivered to the home, the report says. His mother took the packages and hid them. After his sister found out about the packages, she searched his room and found an AR-15-style rifle, according to the report.
Ward told agents that she also learned that her son attended a gun show and had been purchasing more tactical gear and firearms, the report states.
“Ward advised that with all the above information gathered, she decided to call the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Crisis Intervention Officers responded to her residence,” it says.
Officers told Ward that they could not legally take her son’s firearm. Harris allegedly got into an argument with his mother and said that he had worked hard to earn the money to purchase the weapon and wanted to keep it.
The report says that the family contacted police “because they were concerned about Orlando H.’s mental illness and felt he should not be in possession of any firearms.
Report details St. Louis high school gunman’s struggle with mental health before 2022 shooting
