The Journal (Newcastle, UK)

USA: Four students last night overpowered a gunman who “executed” three people at their college.

The four tackled the man as he wielded a .380 semi-automatic pistol and held him until police arrived at the Appalachian School of Law, in Grundy, Virginia.

He had shot and killed three people, including the dean of the college and a professor, and wounded three other women students. One was last night in a faire condition, the other two were critical and undergoing surgery.

The first medical worker on the scene said dean Anthony Sutin had been “executed” with shots to the head and another member of staff had been shot in the back as he lay on the ground.

“They were shot at point blank range,” Dr Jack Briggs said.

“It looked like a war zone. There were bodies everywhere.”

The two teachers were apparently shot in front of their secretaries before the gunman went on a spree in which he shot randomly at students.

The doctor said: “This student was a foreign student who flunked out of school.”

He was given another chance but the dean was about to tell him that he would have to go.

Dr Briggs said the three shot students had been helicoptered to hospitals near the small town in a rural area of the Appalachian Mountains.

He said the gunman had been a patient of his. “I saw him about six months ago. He was complaining of stress. He was a timebomb waiting to go off. “

The college was set up in 1997 to help the run-down coal mining area’s economy.

Appalachian School of Law Shootings

The Journal (Newcastle, UK)