A recent dropout from the Concord (N.H.) High School was fatally wounded by police in a brief gun battle in a hallway of the school last Monday, after holding two students hostage at gunpoint shortly after the start of the day’s first classes.
The dropout, Lou Cartier Jr., died in the hospital Wednesday, according to the high school’s principal, Charles Foley.
A police investigation of the incident found that the two officers involved in the shooting were justified in using force because Mr. Cartier was waving a double-barreled shotgun and refused to relinquish it, police officials said. They said it was the first time Concord police had used force in three years.
Mr. Cartier apparently entered the school shortly after 8 a.m. carrying the shotgun. Assistant Principal Mark Roth tried to talk him into giving up the gun and called the police when he refused.
Students Held Hostage
Mr. Foley said Mr. Cartier, a 16-year-old junior who had dropped out of school less than two weeks before, took two male students hostage when the police arrived, holding them at gunpoint for about 17 minutes before he was shot.
It was not known why Mr. Cartier quit school or what his motives were in the hostage-taking, according to Mr. Foley. There was nothing in his previous behavior or in his school file to indicate he was a risk, he said.
One hostage was released before police opened fire and the other es-caped injury by jumping through a window, the principal said.
One officer was struck in the face by a shotgun pellet when the youth returned fire, he said.
Mr. Foley said he called an assembly of the student body to explain the known facts in the case and to offer counseling to those who desired it. He said the school community was deeply disturbed by the incident because it had had no previous problems with weapons or violence.
One of Concord High School’s teachers is Sharon Christa McAuliffe, who was selected by nasa to be the first teacher to fly on the space shuttle, on a mission that is scheduled for Jan. 22.
In New York City last week, police arrested a junior-high-school student who allegedly shot two fellow students in the halls of Junior High School 125 in the East Bronx. Michael Tirado, 16, was charged with possession of a dangerous weapon, reckless endangerment, and felony assault, according to a police spokesman, Vincent W. Jones.
A 14-year-old student was grazed in the neck by a bullet and a 15-year-old student was shot in the left foot, he said. The two students were walking in a school corridor when they were shot, he said, and it appeared to investigating officers that the gun accidentally discharged while it was being handled by Mr. Tirado.
