Principal shot at school dies from wounds

[All I can say is 'It's been done.']

CAZENOVIA, Wis. - A school principal shot Friday morning by a student died a few hours later while in surgery, the University of Wisconsin-Madison hospital said Friday.
The 15-year-old was taken into custody and charged with first-degree intentional homicide, the district attorney said. No one else was hurt.
The homecoming weekend shooting happened one day after Weston Schools Principal John Klang gave the student, Eric Hainstock, a disciplinary warning for having tobacco on school grounds, the criminal complaint said.

Hainstock had told a friend the principal would not “make it through homecoming,” the complaint said.
Hainstock said that a group of kids had teased him by calling him “fag” and “faggot” and by rubbing up against him, the complaint said, and the teen felt teachers and the principal wouldn't do anything about it.
Hainstock said he decided to confront students, teachers and the principal with the guns to make them listen to him, according to the complaint.
Friday morning, he pried open his family's gun cabinet, took out a shotgun and then took a handgun from his parent's bedroom, the complaint said.
The complaint said he shot the principal intentionally three times.
Witnesses said the student walked in with a shotgun before classes began. A custodian, teachers and students wrestled with him.
The custodian said the teen was a special-education student who told him he was there to kill someone, but did not say who.
“He was calm, but he was on a mission,” said Dave Thompson, 43, who also has two children at the school.

Second gun usedThompson said the student first pointed a shotgun in a teacher’s face. Thompson grabbed the gun, but the student then appeared to be reaching for another gun, so Thompson and the teacher took cover. Thompson then ran into a kitchen to call 911.


Second gun usedThompson said the student first pointed a shotgun in a teacher’s face. Thompson grabbed the gun, but the student then appeared to be reaching for another gun, so Thompson and the teacher took cover. Thompson then ran into a kitchen to call 911.
Junior Timmy Donovan said the student “pulled a .22 pistol out of his pants, and then started shooting the principal. And at that point, I guess the principal ran and tackled him to the ground.”
Klang, 49, was shot in the head, chest and leg, authorities said.
Hainstock could get life in prison if convicted, District Attorney Patricia Barrett said. Wisconsin does not have the death penalty.
Sophomore Shelly Rupp, 16, described the boy as a freshman with few friends and said he was “just weird in the head.”
“He always used to kid around about bringing things to school and hurting kids,” she said at a gas station nearby where students and townspeople gathered.
Children from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade attend the small school near Cazenovia, a community of about 300 people about 60 miles northwest of Madison.
The shooting took place two days after a gunman took six students hostage in a Colorado high school and killed one of them before committing suicide.
'Kids just loved' principalThe shooting happened as the school was preparing for homecoming weekend. The homecoming parade, football game and dance were canceled or postponed.
School officials said Klang had more than 20 years of experience with the district, beginning as a school board member, and described him as kind, compassionate and soft-spoken.
Rupp called Klang a good principal who always listened to his students. Resident Laurie Rhea, 42, said Klang had spent last weekend at the gas station washing cars for a homecoming fundraiser.
“It’s horrible. All the kids just loved him,” she said.