Two dead, 13 wounded in high school shooting

Two teenagers died and 13 were wounded when a 15-year-old boy who was picked on and had talked about shooting classmates opened fire in a high school toilet, officials said.

The shooting was the deadliest US school attack since Columbine.

One student said the boy had a smile on his face as he fired with a pistol at Santana High School in Santee, a middle-class suburb of San Diego, California.

The boy, a freshman whose name was not released, surrendered in the bathroom.

Sheriff’s officials said he dropped his gun, said he acted alone and told officers: "It’s just me".

The boy - identified as Charles Andrew Williams, known as Andy Williams would be charged as an adult with murder, assault with a deadly weapon and gun possession, said San Diego County District Attorney Paul Pfingst.

Sheriff’s and FBI officials served a search warrant last night on the apartment where the teenager lived with his father.

They spent a little more than two hours inside the apartment, removing a computer hard drive, computer monitor, a plastic crate filled with papers and files and about a half dozen bags filled with evidence.

Officials with both agencies said they could not comment on the search.

The students who died were identified as Bryan Zuckor, 14, and Randy Gordon, 15.

Authorities said one of the victims was a campus supervisor, while a student suffered minor injuries in a car accident while fleeing the 1,900-student school.

District Attorney Paul Pfingst said: "I know in your minds is the overriding question 'Why?'

"The suspect has made statements. I will not share the contents of the statements with you at this time, but there is no real answer. I am not sure in any real way we will ever know why."

Fellow students and an adult acquaintance said they had heard the boy’s threats over the weekend but thought he was joking and did not report him to authorities.

Student Jessica Moore said: "He was picked on all the time. He was picked on because he was one of the scrawniest guys. People called him freak, dork, nerd, stuff like that."

Student John Schardt, 17, was in a nearby classroom when the shooting started about 9.20am in a boys’ toilets and spilled into a quad.

"I looked at the kid, and he was smiling and shooting his weapon," Schardt said.

"It was total chaos. People were trying to take cover."

Andrew Kaforey, a 17-year-old senior, said he ran into the toilet with a security guard after hearing what sounded like a firecracker or a gunshot.

"He pointed the gun right at me but he didn’t shoot," Kaforey said.

As he and the guard ran out, the gunman shot the guard in the back, Kaforey said.

Investigators said the boy used a .22-calibre revolver, stopping once to reload, and after the shooting retreated into the toilets.

The attack was the deadliest US school shooting since the April 1999 bloodbath at Columbine High near Littleton, Colorado, where two teenagers killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before committing suicide.

In Washington, President George W Bush called the shooting "a disgraceful act of cowardice".

Principal Karen Degiescher said: "This is my worst nightmare".

The school would be closed today, she said.