Edinboro, Pa., has been added to the list of communities that are grieving over recent school-related shootings.
At an 8th grade dinner dance on April 24, a 14-year-old student at the 900-student Parker Middle School in the western Pennsylvania town allegedly shot and killed a science teacher from the school, John Gillette, with a semiautomatic pistol. One pupil was shot in the foot and another was grazed. A teacher was also grazed by a bullet.
The student, Andrew Wurst, allegedly shot the 48-year-old teacher on a patio outside the dance and then fired additional shots inside. According to police, the banquet hall’s owner, armed with a shotgun, confronted the student and persuaded him to surrender.
The youth was charged as an adult with homicide and three counts each of aggravated assault and reckless endangerment, along with gun and drug charges, a state police spokesman said.
Four days after the Edinboro shooting, two teenage boys were shot to death and a third was injured in a gang-related incident while outside Philadelphia Elementary School in Pomona, Calif., after school hours. MARY ANN ZEHR
