Michigan school massacre victims revealed: Hero football player, 16, and two girls, 14 and 17

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A 16-year-old hero football player and two girls, 14 and 17, have been named as victims of a school shooting in Michigan in a rampage that came days after the suspect’s dad had bought a pistol.   

Hana St. Juliana, 14, Tate Myre, 16, and Madisyn Baldwin, 17, died after a gunman opened fire on students at Oxford High School in suburban Detroit just before 1 p.m. Tuesday, police said. 

Myre was shot when he tried to disarm the shooter and died in a patrol car as deputies rushed him to an area hospital. St. Juliana and Baldwin were pronounced dead when officials arrived at the scene.  

Deputies rushed to the school around 12:50 p.m. as more than 100 calls flooded 911 dispatchers with reports of a shooter. They arrested the gunman, 15, in a hallway within minutes of their arrival with the help of an on-scene school resource officer. The sophomore student put his hands in the air as deputies approached, police said. 

Cops recovered a 9mm Sig Sauer semi-automatic handgun, purchased by the gunman’s father on Friday. They later said the suspect had fired at least 12 rounds and had seven more rounds of ammunition when he surrendered. It is not yet clear where in the school the shooter started his rampage. 

Police said it was also not yet clear what the shooter’s motive was but that they were searching his social media accounts for clues after finding pictures of him shooting the handgun at a target. 

Authorities were made aware of posts on social media that said there had been threats of a shooting at the roughly 1,700-student school, but Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said they did not know about the rumors until after the attack. 

Another eight people were injured – seven students and one teacher, a 47-year-old woman who was treated and discharged, according to the sheriff’s office.

All seven wounded students remain hospitalized, some with life-threatening injuries. Police late Tuesday said four were in a critical condition including a 14-year-old girl who was fighting for her life on a ventilator following surgery for chest and neck wounds at Hurley Medical Center in Flint.  

It comes as chilling footage emerged Tuesday of the suspect, a sophomore at the school whom police said was refusing to cooperate, trying to convince would-be victims that it was safe to emerge from hiding.

‘Sheriff’s office,’ the boy says. ‘You can come out.’ 

Scroll down for video 

Students exchange glances as one whispers ‘he said it’s safe to come out.’ But the teacher responds: ‘We’re not taking that risk. The gunman shouts back something inaudible before calling his classmate ‘bro’ and in that sickening moment, classmates began jumping out a window, realizing the self-professed cop was actually the shooter. 

A senior at the school, Aiden Page, said his teacher locked the classroom, barricaded the door, covered the windows and instructed the students to hide after hearing two gunshots ring through the school. 

‘We grabbed calculators, we grabbed scissors just in case the shooter got in and we had to attack them,’ Page told CNN, adding that one bullet had pierced a desk used to barricade the door. It was not clear if Page was in the classroom shown in the video.  

The campus was placed on lockdown during the attack, with some children sheltering in locked classrooms. They were later taken to a nearby Meijer grocery store to be picked up by their parents. The district said in a statement that all of its schools would be closed for the rest of the week.

Bouchard said late Tuesday that investigators were still trying to determine a motive. The suspect has not been named because of his age, but could be identified if he is charged as an adult over the killings.   

‘The person that’s got the most insight and the motive is not talking,’ Bouchard said at a news conference Tuesday evening. Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe said the suspect, who is being housed in Oakland County juvenile center under suicide watch, had demanded his right to a lawyer after being advised not to speak to investigators by his parents. 

The latest in a long series of U.S. school shootings will again fuel debates about gun control and mental health care, with many states allowing easy access to firearms while mental health disorders frequently go untreated. Authorities said counseling would be offered to students, staff and deputies.

President Joe Biden responded to the shooting Tuesday afternoon, saying ‘my heart goes out to the families of all those in Oxford, Michigan, experiencing the unimaginable grief of losing a loved one.’  

Tributes poured in for the three slain teens, along with prayers for them, the wounded and all of their families. 

Members of the football community shared their praise for Tate, a junior listed at six feet and 195 pounds whose plays drew attention from college recruiters. 

‘I covered #42 for his game this season VS Chippewa Valley, which he was a stud,’ wrote sports videographer Elijah Tiernan on Twitter. ‘Prayers out to the Oxford community during these tough times.’ 

A petition calling for the school’s football stadium to be renamed after the standout varsity running back and middle linebacker has already garnered more than 32,000 signatures. 

In a heartbreaking Facebook post before her family learned that she had not survived, Madisyn’s grandmother pleaded for any information about the high school senior, who was scheduled to be in a psychology class when the shooting occurred. 

Jennifer Graves Mosqueda wrote: ‘My granddaughter Madisyn Baldwin can not be located at all!!! Madisyn is 17 and a senior in this at Oxford High School. 

‘Our family are out on foot trying to find her and bring her home safe. She is not answering her cell phone, or text messages. 

‘She was not in her psychology class during the shootings. WHERE SHE WAS SCHEDULED TO BE. No contact with her mother, father, stepmother, grandparents, aunts, friends, or her boyfriend!’

She went on to implore people for information and asked parents to ask their children if they had seen Madisyn.

‘I never imagined the horror we witnessed today,’ wrote Oxford Police Chief Michael Solwold in a Facebook post. 

‘I saw the fear and tears in our kids faces as they were escorted out by us to safety. Although our kids were in fear I heard many as they were running out with their hands up say, thank you. It took everything in my being to keep it together to go back down the hallways to help clear classrooms.’ 

‘There is not enough training in the world to prepare you for your emotions when it involves your children. Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims and their families, the school staff and the first responders,’ he added.

At a vigil last night at LakePoint Community Church, Leeann Dersa choked back tears as she hugged friends and neighbors. Dersa has lived nearly all of her 73 years in Oxford. Her grandchildren attended the high school.

‘Scared us all something terrible. It’s awful,’ Dersa said of the shooting.

Pastor Jesse Holt said news of the shooting flooded in to him and his wife, including texts from some of the 20 to 25 students who are among the 400-member congregation.

‘Some were very scared, hiding under their desks and texting us, `We’re safe, we’re OK. We heard gunshots, but we’re OK.’ They were trying to calm us, at least that’s how it felt,’ he said. 

Police late yesterday confirmed the ages and injuries sustained by the eight wounded victims.  

Four students were in a critical condition. Among them, a 15-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to the head and a 14-year-old boy with gunshot wounds to the jaw and hand. Both were being treated at McLaren Hospital.  

Two girls – aged 14 and 17 – were in critical condition being treated at Hurley Medical Center in Flint and St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Pontiac.

The 14-year-old was on a ventilator following surgery, police said. 

Three students, two boys aged 15 and 17 and a girl aged 17, were listed as ‘expected to survive’ after being shot in the leg, hip and neck respectively.  

A 47-year-old teacher was discharged from McLaren Lapeer after being shot in the shoulder.

Authorities did not immediately release the suspect’s name, but Undersheriff McCabe said deputies arrested him within minutes of arriving at the school in response to a flood of 911 calls about the attack.

He said the deputies also recovered a semi-automatic handgun and several magazines used to store ammunition that the suspect used in the attack.

‘He fired multiple shots,’ McCabe said. ‘Somewhere in the area of 15 to 20.’

McCabe said the suspect’s parents visited their son where he’s being held and advised him not to talk to investigators, as is his right. Police must seek permission from a juvenile suspect’s parents or guardian to speak with them, he added.

Police said the gunman’s father had purchased the gun but that it was not clear why. He the teen shooter posted pictures of him practicing shooting at a target. 

Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald issued a statement yesterday evening saying her office expects to issue charges quickly and that an update would be given Wednesday.  

McDonald promised swift justice, saying in a statement: ‘It is our intent to review it [the investigation] thoroughly and issue appropriate charges quickly. The suspect will remain in custody pending those charges.’ 

McCabe said he wasn’t aware of any prior run-ins the suspect had with law enforcement or if he had any disciplinary history at school.   

Masses of stunned students, some crying and others huddled together, emerged from the school following the massacre. 

‘It’s a very tragic situation, obviously,’ Undersheriff Mike McCabe said during a press conference. ‘You never want to prepare for something like this, but you have to, and the school district has done a wonderful job preparing.’ 

Oxford Community Schools superintendent Tim Throne had little to add at the scene, saying he wasn’t sure which students were shot and which one pulled the trigger. 

‘You certainly can pray for our families here in Oxford and our students,’ he said. ‘I’m learning information in real time just as you are.

‘Of course, I’m shocked.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer also condemned the tragedy, saying the killings were ‘every parent’s worst nightmare.’

‘Gun violence is a public health crisis that claims lives every day. We have the tools to reduce gun violence in Michigan.’ 

Whitmer added that: ‘no one should be afraid to go to school, work, a house of worship, or even their own home. 

‘This is a time for us to come together and help children feel safe at school.’ 

Isabel Flores told WJBK-TV that she and other students heard gunshots and saw another student bleeding from the face.

They then ran from the area through the rear of the school, said Flores, a 15-year-old ninth grader. 

Student Abbey Hodder, 15, told the Detroit Free Press she was in chemistry class when she heard the sound of glass breaking.

‘My teacher kind of ran out and was scrambling,’ Hodder said. ‘The next thing I knew I saw he was pushing tables. It’s part of school protocol to barricade, so we all knew, barricade, barricade down. And we all started pushing tables.’

Rick Alan, whose daughter Katelynn attends Oxford high, said he received a frightening text message as the chaos was unfolding.

‘Dad I love you,’ it said. ‘There is a shooter at our school and I love you so much and you are the best dad I could have ever asked for.’

She emerged from the school uninjured after sending the messages.

‘I pray that no one ever gets this text message from their child,’ her dad wrote on Facebook. 

Senator Rosemary Bayer issued a statement shortly after the shooting, calling it ‘horrifying.’

‘The news of today’s school shooting at Oxford High school is simply horrifying,’ she tweeted. ‘On top of an already difficult situation with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, our students now have to face this traumatic situation in a place that is supposed to be a safe space for students and growth.’ 

A concerned parent, Robin Redding, said her son, Treshan Bryant, is a 12th grader at the school but stayed home Tuesday. Redding said her son had heard threats that there could be a shooting.

‘This couldn’t be just random,’ she said.

Bryant said he texted several younger cousins in the morning and they said they didn’t want to go to school, and he got a bad feeling. He asked his mom if he could do his assignments online.

Bryant said he had heard vague threats ‘for a long time now’ about plans for a shooting. 

School administrators posted two letters to parents on the school’s website this month, saying they were responding to rumors of a threat against the school following a bizarre vandalism incident.

According to a November 4 letter written by Principal Steve Wolf, someone threw a deer head into a courtyard from the school’s roof, painted several windows on the roof with red acrylic paint and used the same paint on concrete near the school building.

Without specifically referencing that incident, a second post on November 12 assured ‘there has been no threat to our building nor our students.’

‘We are aware of the numerous rumors that have been circulating throughout our building this week. We understand that has created some concern for students and parents,’ the administrators wrote. ‘Please know that we have reviewed every concern shared with us and investigated all information provided. Some rumors have evolved from an incident last week, while others do not appear to have any connection. Student interpretations of social media posts and false information have exacerbated the overall concern.’ 

Undersheriff McCabe said that authorities were aware of allegations circulating on social media that there had been threats of a shooting at the roughly 1,700-student school before Tuesday’s attack, but he cautioned against believing that narrative until investigators can look into it. 

Both the sheriff and undersheriff emphasized that yesterday’s shooting was unrelated to the deer head or any earlier investigation by their office.

‘That was a different incident, different student,’ McCabe said.

Video footage from ClickOnDetroit shows a line of ambulances in the school’s parking lot and a medical ambulance grounded on the rooftop. 

A father on scene told Fox News that his son barricaded himself in a classroom when gunshots began ringing out.

The dad said his child is safe. 

Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan also issued a statement, expressing her own shock.

‘I am horrified by the shooting at Oxford High School today,’ she tweeted. ‘I’ve been talking with Oxford leaders, parents and students and we are all praying for the health of those injured, and the well-being of all our young people, many of whom are in shock.’

The shooting happened in Oxford, a town of about 22,000 people about 30 miles north of Detroit.