The father of the 16-year-old who killed himself inside his high school Tuesday over a less-than-satisfactory report card urged students at a candlelight vigil to listen to troubled classmates.
?You got to talk to anyone who has a problem and listen to the problem,? Halligan said. ?I?m not saying Shane did talk to anyone, but obviously, he had an issue.?
His son, Shane Halligan, died after he put what appeared to be an AK-47 to his chin and pulled the trigger in a hallway at Springfield Township High School in Montgomery County Tuesday morning.
"It's a very, very, very tough time," said John Halligan, the teen's father. "He was an Eagle Scout. He got it when he was 13. He was a volunteer fireman. He was going for his private pilot's license. He's talking National Guard. I don't know what happened today."
Shane Halligan, who would have turned 17 in February, is described as a good student, a volunteer firefighter and an Eagle Scout. Halligan had planned to go into the Army and his parents were going to let him take boot camp this summer before his senior year of high school.
Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor said it could have been the end of those hopes that sparked Tuesday's shooting. Halligan's grades had been dropping, and after his parents found a report card with grades they deemed unsatisfactory, the 16-year-old was told he would not be able to be a firefighter or go to boot camp early unless his grades improved.
His family said he took it well, watched football with them Monday night and nothing seemed unusual at breakfast Tuesday morning.
Then, around 9:15 a.m. between classes in a hall near the school science wing when the teen, wearing a Led Zeppelin T-shirt and blue jeans, pulled the semiautomatic rifle from his bag, warned students nearby to get down and get away and he started shooting into the ceiling, leaving huge craters in the cinder block walls.
"I just heard 'Get down,' and I saw shots fired into the ceiling, and so from that point, I just ran outside," one student told NBC 10.
"Teachers were just trying to get everybody out of the building, just trying to get away from the school. They said, 'Just get in your cars and leave,'" another student said.
None of the many students in the hall were injured.
"I just heard shooting, and we were running," student Jen Lynch said.
"Everyone was running and yelling. Someone was shooting. We ran. People were pushing everyone out of the way," student Mercy Eustace said.
Police said they responded almost immediately and were in the building when the final shot was fired into the boy's head. The coroner will do an autopsy Wednesday but confirmed that the death appears to be a suicide, according to Castor.
A note was found in Halligan's front pocket indicating that he intended to commit suicide.
"Today is the day that Montgomery County lost its innocence as it relates to school safety," Castor said. "We will have to convene the chiefs of police and the senior staff in the DA's office and the school administrators to figure out what we can do to try to make sure this doesn't happen again."
When the shots were fired, 911 was immediately called and the schools were put on lockdown.
The district attorney said it appears the gun came from a gun safe in the family home with multiple other firearms. The teen found some way to get the gun out of the safe, which is secured with two keys kept by his father John Halligan, Castor said.
"We don't know how it became it unlocked and how it got into his possession or when," John Halligan said.
"... We see this on the news and wonder how it happens. It doesn't happen to your family, but it did," the tearful father said.
After a student brought a handgun to school and showed it to classmates in September, school officials considered metal detectors, but felt it was an isolated incident and that detectors might not be the answer.
Police said they don't think the security measures would have made a difference.
"These campuses are not prisons," Police Chief Randall Hummel said. "If he was intent on doing this and there was a metal detector, I have no doubt that there would have been a way for him to get the weapon into the school and use it."
Castor suggests it may be impossible to stop someone intent on causing harm.
"I know how to make sure that we have no violence in schools, but you've got to wonder if the public is willing to pay the price of searches and metal detectors and clothing that is always tucked in, and no long coats, and no duffle bags and all of those sorts of things," Castor said. "America is built on freedom, and what we have to do is create an atmosphere where people don't do this rather than try to stop everything that can possibly happen."
Schools in the School District of Springfield Township will be closed Wednesday, following Tuesday's school shooting. The district will make counselors available to students and their families.
District Superintendent Dr. Roseanne Nyiri said Tuesday night they will explore all possible avenues to prevent guns from coming into the school, and that police will provide them with a lot of guidance.
Halligan's friends could not believe the teen killed himself. They said he was the funny guy in the crowd, the volunteer firefighter who couldn't wait to join the military -- an all around good guy. They wish they could have spoken to him in those final minutes.
"If he had gotten somebody to talk to, somebody he knew, I don't think he would have done anything. If he was confused, then we would have helped him," said friend James Andrews.
At Tuesday night's candlelight vigil outside the school, Oreland firefighters looked on and friends cried as Halligan's dad begged everyone not to let this kind of thing happen again.
?You think you know them, but obviously you don?t know what goes on behind their eyes,? Halligan said. ?I?m at a loss, I?m at a complete loss here.?
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