A shooting at Marshall County High School in Western Kentucky killed a 15-year old boy and a 15-year-old girl and wounded 14 others, including four who were in critical condition. 
 
 “It was one right after another — bang, bang, bang, bang, bang,” said witness Alexandria Caporali. “You could see his arm jerking as he was pulling the trigger,” she told the Associated Press. 
 
 State police said the victims ranged in age from 14 to 18 years old and included 14 boys and six girls. Besides those injured by gunfire, four other students were injured. 
 
 The suspect is a 15-year-old boy who was arrested at the school by a deputy. The boy will be charged with two counts of murder and multiple counts of attempted murder, said Kentucky State Police Commissioner Rick Sanders. 
 
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 Bailey Nicole Holt died at the scene, and Preston Ryan Cope died at a hospital, Sanders said at a news conference Tuesday night. 
 
 During the shooting, Caporali, 16, said she grabbed a stunned friend and ran into a classroom as their classmates hit the floor. 
 
 “No one screamed,” she said. “It was almost completely silent as people just ran.” 
 
 Caporali said the shooter kept firing until he ran out of ammunition and took off running, trying to get away. 
 
 “He was determined. He knew what he was doing,” she said. 
 
 Lexie Waymon, 16, said she and a friend were talking about the next basketball game, makeup and eyelashes when gunshots pierced the air. 
 
 “I blacked out. I couldn’t move. I got up and I tried to run, but I fell. I heard someone hit the ground. It was so close to me,” Waymon said. “I just heard it and then I just, everything was black for a good minute. Like, I could not see anything. I just froze and did not know what to do. Then I got up and I ran.” 
 
 Her friend, Baleigh Culp, told the AP in a text message that they were joking and laughing until they heard a loud bang that sounded like someone’s books hitting the floor. 
 
 “That’s what I expected it to be, until I saw a body drop on the ground,” Culp wrote. “There was bullets flying everywhere. I ran straight out the door and headed to the highway as fast as I could.” 
 
 Waymon did not stop running either, not even when she called her mom to tell her what happened. She made it to the McDonald’s, her chest hurting, struggling to breathe. “All I could keep thinking was, ‘I can’t believe this is happening. I cannot believe this is happening,’” she said. 
 
 Vanderbilt University Medical Center said Tuesday night that it was caring for four boys, all in critical but stable condition, and a girl who was listed in stable condition. 
 
 The shooting occurred just before 8 a.m. at the school in Benton, in southwestern Kentucky, according to Sanders. The student entered the school, which starts at 8 a.m., with a handgun and opened fire, Sanders said. 
 
 First-responders arrived nine minutes after the shooting began, Sanders said. 
 
 “These children belong to this community and to specific families in this community,” Bevin said. “And this is a wound that will take a long time to heal and, for some in this community, will never heal. Please respect these families.” 
 
 Police escorted a person out of Marshall County High School after a shooting Tuesday in Benton. Gov. Matt Bevin said two people were killed and several others were injured. Dominico Caporali AP 
 
 Preston was one of six patients taken to Vanderbilt. 
 
 Trauma team leader Oscar Guillamondegui said three boys had gunshot wounds to the head, including the boy who died. One boy had an arm wound, and another was shot in the chest and abdomen, the doctor said. 
 
 Vanderbilt said the girl who was in stable condition arrived by ambulance Tuesday night. 
 
 Andrea Austin told CNN that her 17-year-old son Daniel was among those who was shot. 
 
 Daniel, a special needs student, was shot in the right arm and might have to have it amputated, his mother said. She said a teacher and student took him to a hospital in a car. 
 
 Calvary Baptist Church in Grand Rivers posted on Facebook that Gage Smock, who attends the church, was another of the victims. 
 
 “He was shot and transported to Vanderbilt earlier, where he is doing better now,” the church said. “They will do surgery but are waiting a couple days to let the swelling go down.” 
 
 More people were shot Tuesday at Marshall County High School than during another Kentucky mass school shooting at Heath High School in nearby McCracken County 20 years ago. Student Michael Carneal fired 11 shots into a group of classmates in the lobby of Paducah’s Heath High School. Three students were killed and five were wounded. 
 
 Sanders said Marshall students did exactly as they were trained. 
 
 State police had recently shown students how to respond in an active-shooter case, Sanders said. 
 
 The high school was locked down, and no one was allowed inside either entrance, according to the Marshall County Tribune-Courier. Students were bused to nearby North Marshall Middle School, where parents were allowed to pick up their kids, the Tribune-Courier said. 
 
 Bevin said the shooting is a wound that will take a long time to heal. 
 
 “This is an opportunity for Kentucky — though we would not want to be in this position — this is an opportunity for us to show how these situations can be handled,” he said. 
 
 At a news conference later Tuesday, Sanders spoke to the “human toll” the shooting has taken, not only on the community, but also specifically on the first responders who worked at the scene. 
 
 He said one of the first state troopers to arrive Tuesday morning saw the young woman who died and initially thought she was his daughter, who had been dropped off at the school just before the shooting. 
 
 “He had to go over to convince himself it was not his daughter,” Sanders said. 
 
 The shooting was reported in the high school commons, according to a Broadcastify recording of law enforcement scanner traffic from initial calls. Police have not confirmed the details in that recording. 
 
 “Five shots fired. Four down at the high school at Marshall ... one unresponsive,” the dispatcher said. 
 
 There were reports of students down in the school’s tech center, according to the dispatcher. Police found the weapon, a pistol, in the back side of the high school, a sheriff deputy told dispatchers. 
 
 A business owner, Mitchell Garland, said he saw nearly 100 students running out of the high school, crying and screaming, according to the AP. 
 
 Marshall County High School had 1,374 students during the 2016-17 school year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education. All Marshall County public schools will be closed Wednesday, television station WPSD reported. 
 
 Sanders said Kentucky Emergency Management has helped set up a resource center where families can come to pick up supplies, such as glasses lost at the school during the shooting, and a counseling center. 
 
 “There are many that will need grief counseling,” he said. 
 
 Schools, churches and community groups in and around Marshall County planned vigils to honor the victims. 
 
 Sanders said state police were still at the school Tuesday night and would continue to process the scene over the next few days. Reports of how many people were injured fluctuated throughout the day as more information became available from police. The state police Critical Incident Response Team is leading the investigation, with assistance from other local and federal agencies. 
 
 In November, the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office hosted an active-shooter training session, according to WPSD. The deputy who arrested the shooting suspect Tuesday made use of that training . 
 
 At the time of the training, Sheriff Kevin Byers said, “We cannot take the attitude it will never happen here, because just like 20 years ago, it’s never gonna happen here, and look at what happened at Heath High School. … It can happen here.” 
 
 Marshall County Schools Superintendent Trent Lovett posted a statement on Twitter Tuesday night, lauding the “quick action” of first responders and the “outstanding” response of “our courageous faculty and staff at all levels.” 
 
 Not long after the shooting, condolences, praise for law enforcement and calls for prayer poured forth from lawmakers in the state and in Washington, D.C. 
 
 A statement from Gov. Bevin regarding this morning's events in Marshall County: pic.twitter.com/0n0cxgJkvi — Governor Matt Bevin (@GovMattBevin) January 23, 2018 
 
 U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he was closely tracking the reports of the “tragedy in Benton, #Kentucky and Marshall County High School.” 
 
 “My thoughts are with the students, teachers, faculty, and the entire community,” he posted on Twitter. “Thank you to the first-responders who continue to put themselves in harm’s way to protect others.” 
 
 Kentucky Sen. Danny Carroll, who is from Marshall County, said in a statement that he was heartbroken. 
 
 “This is a sad time for our close-knit community in Marshall County, and my thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this senseless tragedy,” he said. “Many thanks to our first-responders who contained the situation and prevented it from escalating further. I remain in communication with the governor’s office and Kentucky State Police as resources are provided to our community.” 
 
 SHARE COPY LINK Sen. Mitch McConnell while speaking on the floor of the U.S. Senate reflected on the fatal shooting at Marshall County High School in Benton, Kentucky. McConnell said his staff in western Kentucky was at the school and in close contact with local 
 
 The area’s U.S. representative, James Comer, said his senior field representative, Martie Wiles, was with local officials in Marshall County and was keeping Comer updated. 
 
 “This morning’s senseless and evil act in Marshall County is news that horrifies us all,” Comer said in a statement. “My thoughts and prayers are with the students and faculty at Marshall County High School, where there has been a tragic school shooting. I stand with the school, first-responders and the entire Marshall County community, we are all united with you today. 
 
 At the General Assembly in Frankfort, House Education Chairman John Carney, R-Taylorsville, shared news of the shooting at that committee’s morning meeting. 
 
 4th victim of Marshall County KY High School shooting landing at Vanderbilt Medical Center. pic.twitter.com/KOXJGK9ZhW — Justin McFarland (@ThisJustinTv) January 23, 2018 
 
 “I would like to ask everyone to remember the folks there in Marshall County in your prayers,” Carney said. 
 
 The committee had just approved House Bill 143, which would require the Kentucky Department of Education to establish a school safety and crisis line where people could report unsafe violent or criminal activities. The bill now goes to the full House. 
 
 Rep. Steven Rudy, R-Paducah, who chairs the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee, began the committee’s meeting with a prayer for the victims. 
 
 Valarie Honeycutt Spears contributed to this report. ||||| Emergency crews respond to Marshall County High School after a fatal school shooting Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018, in Benton, Ky. Authorities said a shooting suspect was in custody. (Ryan Hermens/The Paducah... (Associated Press) 
 
 Emergency crews respond to Marshall County High School after a fatal school shooting Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018, in Benton, Ky. Authorities said a shooting suspect was in custody. (Ryan Hermens/The Paducah Sun via AP) (Associated Press) 
 
 BENTON, Ky. (AP) — They ran silently, too stunned to shout. 
 
 Some of the children ran into classrooms to hide from the boy with the gun. Some ran out of the building, into the fields, across the streets, through the doors of nearby businesses. 
 
 "No one screamed," said 16-year-old Alexandria Caporali, recounting the moment her high school became the site of the latest American mass shooting. "It was almost completely silent as people just ran." 
 
 Bailey Nicole Holt and Preston Ryan Cope, both 15, were killed and another 17 people injured when a classmate opened fire Tuesday morning in the school's busy atrium, a common area in the center of Marshall County High School, where several hallways meet and children gather before classes. 
 
 The trauma consumed the rural town of about 4,300 people, where nearly everyone has a connection to the school. Parents left cars on both sides of an adjacent road, desperately trying to find their teenagers; business owners pulled fleeing children to safety; a state trooper rushed to the school, terrified he would find his own daughter among the dead. 
 
 Kentucky State Police Commissioner Rick Sanders said authorities would not yet identify the 15-year-old, now in police custody, who he said walked into the school armed with a pistol just before 8 a.m. and immediately started firing. 
 
 Caporali was eating breakfast when she heard a shot, turned and saw the teenager with the gun. She knew him as a quiet boy who played music and always seemed happy. After the first shot, he seemed to hesitate. 
 
 In the same room, two 16 year olds, Lexie Waymon and Baleigh Culp, had been laughing and talking about makeup and the homecoming basketball game like ordinary teenagers on an ordinary morning. They heard a bang, and imagined something equally ordinary, like a heavy book hitting the floor. 
 
 "That's what I expected it to be," Culp said. "Until I saw a body drop on the ground and the bangs continued. There was bullets flying everywhere." 
 
 Fear momentarily seized Waymon. 
 
 "I couldn't move. I got up and tried to run, but I fell. I heard someone hit the ground. It was so close to me," she said. She froze, she said. She could see only blackness — for a full minute, she guesses. Then she came to and ran. 
 
 Waymon did not stop running, even though her chest hurt. One phrase ran on repeat through her mind: "I can't believe this is happening. I cannot believe this is happening." She didn't stop until she made it to a McDonald's, more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the school. 
 
 Culp was running, too. She ran to the highway, hearing shot after shot behind her. She kept running, unsure what to do, when a man reached out from the door of a business and pulled her to safety inside, where dozens of other students were hiding. 
 
 "They was running and crying and screaming," said Mitchell Garland, who owns the cleaning company where the girl took refuge. He estimated between 50 and 100 students who ran from the school huddled there, including his own 16-year-old son. 
 
 "Everyone is just scared. Just terrified for their kids," Garland said. 
 
 Inside the school, the boy kept firing, said Caporali, who ran into a classroom. 
 
 "It was one right after another — bang, bang, bang, bang, bang," she said. 
 
 He kept shooting until he ran out of ammunition, she said. Then he took off running, trying to get away. He was soon apprehended by police and led away in handcuffs. 
 
 But by then, 14 had been shot and five others were injured as they ran from the gunfire. Bailey died at the scene and Preston died after being taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Five others remained in critical condition late Tuesday. 
 
 Benton residents gathered in a church hours after the fatal shooting where they reminded that God had not forsaken them and told not to think "what did anyone do to deserve this." 
 
 The case against the suspect will begin in juvenile court, which is closed to the public and the records sealed under Kentucky law. Prosecutors will request a judge move it to adult court, at which point the details will no longer be secret. 
 
 The teen is being held at a regional juvenile jail in Paducah, Kentucky, about a half-hour away, authorities said, and he has been appointed an attorney. 
 
 Word of the shooting spread quickly around town, and people rushed toward the school. 
 
 Marshall County Attorney Jeff Edwards heard the news from a friend and immediately drove to the building. He and his wife both graduated from the school, as did their children. 
 
 He saw children running in every direction and said his heart broke for the ordeal he knows they must endure. 
 
 He took office in 1997, the year a student opened fire in a school 30 minutes away in Paducah, Kentucky, killing three and injuring five. It was two years before the fatal attack at Columbine High School in Colorado, before mass school shootings became all too common, and it left scars across the state. 
 
 "This is something that they will never forget," he said of children who ran for their lives. "It will be with them forever." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press contributors include Adam Beam and Bruce Schreiner in Frankfort, Kentucky; Claire Galofaro and Rebecca Yonker in Louisville, Kentucky; Stephen Lance Dennee in Benton, Kentucky; Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee; and Michael Warren and Lisa Marie Pane in Atlanta. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 / Updated By Ali Gostanian, Alex Johnson and Corky Siemaszko 
 
 Two students were killed Tuesday and 18 other people were wounded when a 15-year-old boy armed with a handgun opened fire inside a Kentucky high school, authorities said. 
 
 Terrified students ditched their backpacks and scrambled to get away, and within minutes of the shots' having been fired, sheriff's deputies were at Marshall County High School in Benton, where they disarmed the student and took him into custody, officials said. 
 
 But it was too late to save Bailey Nicole Holt, 15, who died at the scene, and Preston Ryan Cope, 15, who died later at a trauma center, Kentucky State Police Commissioner Richard Sanders said early Tuesday night. 
 
 Sixteen of the wounded were injured by gunfire and the four others were hurt while trying to escape, state police said Tuesday night, revising Sanders' earlier report that 14 people were shot. Three of the victims were listed in critical condition Tuesday night at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. 
 
 "In addition to those family members that have lost loved ones, that have had loved ones injured or hurt or traumatized, we pray for these people," Sanders said. 
 
 Authorities declined to identify the suspect or discuss a possible motive, but Sanders said he would likely face two counts of murder and "numerous" counts of attempted murder.The FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also joined the investigation. 
 
 Bailey Holt, one of the victims of the Marshall County High School shooting in Kentucky. 
 
 The small town was in shock as teachers and counselors tried to calm terrified students who described the chaos in the classrooms when the bullets started flying at 7:57 a.m. (8:57 a.m. ET), shortly after the shooter entered the school's common area, according to Sanders. 
 
 Related: Texas teen charged with assault for shooting classmate 
 
 Two minutes later, dispatchers got the first 911 call, he said, and police were on scene by 8:06 a.m. The suspect was taken into custody almost immediately by the first officer on the scene, he said. 
 
 "They were busting down the gates and fences just to get out," Shea Thompson, whose teenage siblings were inside the school when the shooting started, told NBC News. 
 
 Greg Rodgers, 17, a junior, said that when he arrived at school, he saw students racing out of the building. 
 
 "I pulled off to the side of the road because everyone was running to the main road," Greg said. "I asked my friend what was going on, and he told me that there was a school shooting. I was shocked. He said that someone had just shot up the school." 
 
 Greg said the suspect opened fire as students were heading to classes. 
 
 "I'm distraught from all of it. I couldn't really focus driving home," he said. "I was shaking a lot driving back to my house. I'm still shaking." 
 
 Thompson said her 15-year-old brother, Shawn, a freshman, called her from the school in "a complete panic" around 8:02 a.m. 
 
 "He was yelling: 'Someone's shooting! Someone's shooting!," said Thompson, 26, of Benton. 
 
 Thompson said her 16-year-old sister, Kristin, a sophomore, was in the common area near the cafeteria. She said Kristin told her that a bullet pierced her friend's backpack but that the friend wasn't hurt. 
 
 Clyde Lee was at North Marshall Middle School waiting to collect Isaac Robinson, his nephew, a sophomore who was being bused there from the high school. He said he had just learned that a young girl they know was badly wounded. 
 
 "There are a lot of parents crying," Lee said. "It's a very bad situation here. We had a family friend who was shot in the chest. We don't have any other information on her condition." 
 
 Emergency crews respond to Marshall County High School in Benton, Kentucky, after a fatal school shooting Tuesday. Ryan Hermens / The Paducah Sun via AP 
 
 Lee said he never imagined "something like this happening in such a small town" like Benton. 
 
 "No one should have to go through something like this," he said. 
 
 Benton is a city of about 4,300 residents in western Kentucky, about 120 miles northwest of Nashville. It is also about 40 miles southeast of West Paducah, Kentucky, where a 14-year-old student at Heath High School opened fired in 1997, killing three people and wounding five others as they were praying. 
 
 The shooting Tuesday came a day after a 15-year-old girl was wounded at Italy High School in Texas after someone opened fire inside the cafeteria. No motive was immediately given. 
 
 "Our nation's schools should be some of the safest spaces in our communities," said Gabby Giffords, the former congresswoman-turned-activist, who noted that there have been 13 mass shootings already this year. "And it's only January." 
 
 CORRECTION (Jan. 24, 7:20 pm ET): An earlier version of this article misstated the location of Vanderbilt University Medical Center. It is in Nashville, Tennessee, not Knoxville.
– Benton, Kentucky, is home to just 4,300 people, a size so small that nearly everybody has some kind of connection to Marshall County High School, notes the AP. The point was illustrated when one of the first deputies to arrive on the scene of Tuesday's school shooting came across the teenage girl who was killed and feared it was his daughter, who had just been dropped off. It wasn't, but "he had to go over to convince himself it was not his daughter," says Kentucky State Police Chief Rick Sanders, per the Lexington Herald-Leader. Other developments: 2 names: The two slain students have been identified as Bailey Nicole Holt and Preston Ryan Cope, both 15. Injured: Three of the other 14 gunshot victims remain in critical condition, reports NBC News. All the victims range in age from 14 to 18. Four other students were injured, though they were not shot. Suspect: The 15-year-old male suspect, who has not been identified, is being held in a juvenile jail. Witness Alexandria Caporali says he was a "quiet boy who played music and always seemed happy," in the words of the AP. Police say he had walked to school, then entered and opened fire with a handgun before the start of classes. Shooting: "It was one right after another—bang, bang, bang, bang, bang," recalls Caporali. "You could see his arm jerking as he was pulling the trigger." She added that "he was determined," though he did seem to hesitate after the first shot. Another witness: Lexie Waymon, 16, says she froze after seeing a "body drop." Then she started running, with the phrase "I can't believe this is happening" voicing itself over and over again in her mind. She didn't stop running until she reached McDonald's; it sits more than a mile from the school. No. 11: This is the 11th school shooting of the young year, reports the New York Times.