Philip Barbour students are safe, suspect isolated

West Virginia State Police expressed appreciation for all involved law enforcement agencies, fire departments and first responders.

Ben Queen/AP Students wait on the football field bleachers at Philip Barbour High School in Philippi, W.Va., after being evacuated Tuesday afternoon. “Their ability to keep calm in this situation made it much easier for officers to successfully perform their duties, which resulted in positive conclusion to an incident which easily could have developed into a tragedy”, Baylous said. The boy was armed with a pistol, according to Baylous.

Baylous says he did not instantly have extra particulars on the suspect or what had occurred.

Investigators are still trying to pin down what led the 14-year-old – who was sent to a local hospital for evaluation after the incident – to do what he did. Once he’s released prosecutors will determine what charges he may face.

Barbour county schools superintendent, Jeffrey Woofter, credited the teacher for maintaining control when classes were about to change and praised the Philippi police chief for talking the suspect into giving up.

It was the ninth day of the new school year in Philippi, a town with a population of 3000 about 185km (115 miles) south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The boy, who was not identified by officials, put down the loaded.380-caliber handgun and surrendered to authorities by around 3:30 p.m., West Virginia State Police Lt. Michael Baylous said.

Steve Saltis was amongst a number of mother and father outdoors an space cordoned off by police tape at West Virginia’s Philip Barbour Excessive Faculty ready for college kids to be launched.