Mexico school shooter uses dad's gun

A 15-year-old Mexican student who shot his teacher and three classmates before shooting himself used his father's gun, officials said on Thursday.

The incident early Wednesday at the American School of the Northeast in Monterrey, capital of northern Nuevo Leon state, has shocked a country used to drug-related violence, but not school shootings.

Like his father, "the boy was a hunting enthusiast, that's why he was so skilled," Nuevo Leon spokesman for security matters Aldo Fasci said at a press conference.

Prosecutors searching the shooter's home late Wednesday found hunting weapons belonging to the father, an accountant, said Fasci, without specifying how many firearms there were.

However, the father and the family have no prior criminal record and are not facing any charges, he added.

"The father has nothing to do with it and neither does his family. They are victims too. It was an action taken by a minor under his own judgment," said Fasci.

The boy reportedly told several classmates a day earlier that he would bring a gun to school and showed it to them in class, but none of them suspected he would open fire.

"They didn't believe him" when he said he would take the gun, and "he didn't say he was going to shoot," the official said.

The teacher and two of the students were shot in the head with a .22-caliber pistol and remain in critical condition, while a third victim, who was shot in the arm, was to be released from hospital later in the day. State Health Secretary Manuel de la O said the parents of the shooter, who was later declared brain dead at a hospital, decided to donate their son's organs, and his liver and kidney's have already been transplanted.

source: Xinhua