Suspect may have killed father before opening fire at South Carolina school

By Harriet McLeod

CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) – A teenager is believed to have shot and killed his father before going to a nearby elementary school in South Carolina and wounding two children and a teacher on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.

A teacher called 911 to report a gunman and police arrived within 7 minutes at Townville Elementary School in Anderson County, located near the Georgia state line about 100 miles (160 km) northeast of Atlanta.

One of the 6-year-old children shot was in critical condition and in surgery at Greenville Memorial Hospital, Scott Stoller, Anderson County’s director of emergency services, told the Anderson Independent Mail.

(Additional reporting by Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Curtis Skinner in San Francisco and Laila Kearney in New York; Writing by Lisa Shumaker; Editing by Leslie Adler and Andrew Hay)