Taft High School Shooting 2013: Revenge For Bullying?

The 16-year-old boy that opened fire on Taft High School in California Thursday, fatally shooting one student and injuring another, had planned the attack in advance to target students who had bullied him for more than a year, the Christian Science Monitor reported.

The boy, who has yet to be identified, reportedly used a 12-gauge shotgun that belonged to his brother, and went to bed Wednesday night with a plan to get revenge on two students, Kern County sheriff Donny Youngblood said at a news conference.

Surveillance video captured the boy trying to conceal the gun as he approached the school nervously through a side entrance after classes had started Thursday. A resident near the school saw the shooter walking toward the school with the shotgun and called authorities, Youngblood said.

The boy entered his classroom and opened fire, critically injuring one student. The student reportedly called out the name of another intended target and shot at the person, but missed, authorities said, before the class' teacher and a school administrator intervened, coercing the shooter to surrender.

During the incident another student suffered minor injuries while falling over a table trying to flee the classroom, and another was taken to the hospital with potential hearing damage from sound of the gun blast.

The shooting occurred at the only senior high school in Taft, a hamlet of about 10,000 people around 30 miles southwest of Bakersfield.

"The heroics of these two people, it goes without saying," Youngblood said. "To stand there and face someone that has a shotgun, who's already discharged it and shot a student, it speaks volumes for these two young men."

The shooter reportedly had up to 20 shotgun extra shotgun rounds left in his pocket, authorities said. The teacher who intervened was hit in the head with a shotgun pellet, but wasn't seriously wounded, authorities said.

While Taft High School normally has an armed police officer on duty, he was unable to make it to work Thursday due to snow on the roads, Youngblood said.

"This teacher and this counselor stood there face-to-face not knowing if he was going to shoot them," Youngblood said. "They probably expected the worst and hoped for the best, but they gave the students a chance to escape."