Pastor talks down would-be shooter with 28 hostages at West Virginia high school

A 14-year-old victim of bullying held 27 students and a teacher at gunpoint. The boy's pastor, Howard Swick, successfully talked the boy down and not a single shot was fired.

Free Catholic PDF's - Home / Parish / School / Bulletin Inserts

Los Angeles (Catholic Online) -  An unnamed student at Philip Barbour County High School in Philippi, West Virginia came to school with a pistol, which he used to hold his class hostage in their second-story classroom.

State Police spokesman Lt. Michael Baylous reported that the boy kept his hostages for 45 minutes before police negotiators convinced him to release them. Without a single shot fired, the boy released his classmates and teacher before spending another 90 minutes debating suicide in the empty classroom.

Pastor Howard Swick of Hope Ministry in Philippi claims he instinctively arrived to the scene where his daughter is a senior student. She reported the boy had been bullied on several occasions.

"He's a child who's been bullied to the point where he just snapped," Swick stated. "I'm watching this 14-year-old child with a gun, crying. He looked completely hopeless... and realized he had taken this farther than he had ever wanted to go. He didn't know how to retreat."

After surrendering, the boy was sent to the hospital for an evaluation and was later sent to a juvenile detention center in Romney where he has since been charged with making terrorist threats, wanton endangerment and possession of a gun on school premises.

Police have yet to identify the student and he will remain in the detention center until the court proceedings take place.

17-year-old Kayla Smith told authorities that no one in her classroom -located in the same building as the boy held hostages- took the "code red" warning seriously. Once the danger was clear, she reports "we all held hands and said a prayer."

Superintendent Jeffrey Woofter says classes resumed following a two-hour delay the next day where every Philip Barbour High teacher was present. There were also grief counselors and policemen guarding each school entrance.

"The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him." Nahum 1:7

---