Teen charged with murder after Canada school shooting
April 29, 1999
Web posted at: 6:37 p.m. EDT (1037 GMT)

In this story:
'He was shot point-blank'
Victim's father: 'Things have to change'

TABER, Alberta (CNN) -- A 14-year-old former student was charged Thursday with first-degree murder and attempted murder, a day after he allegedly marched into a high school in southern Alberta and shot two students, killing one and seriously wounding the other.

The boy, who was not identified because he is a juvenile, fired four shots from a .22-caliber rifle at W.R. Myers high school on Wednesday, police said, killing 17-year-old Jason Lang. Lang's friend, Shane Christmas, also 17, was listed in fair to serious condition Thursday at a hospital after surgery.

The shooting came just eight days after an attack on a Colorado high school left 14 students and one teacher dead, and it sent shock waves through the small farming community of Taber, about 110 miles (175 km) southeast of Calgary, Alberta.

Police refused to speculate whether Wednesday's shooting -- reported to be the first fatal Canadian high school shooting in 20 years -- was influenced by the Colorado attack. They said they were conducting a thorough investigation and could not release full details until their probe was complete.

Many of the 400 students at the school scattered and others hid behind desks when the gunfire erupted moments after lunch hour on Wednesday.

'He was shot point-blank'

Greg Tomcala, 14, said he watched in horror as a boy aimed a rifle at a student sitting against a locker doing schoolwork. "I looked down the hall and I saw him shoot one kid," Tomcala said. "He was shot point-blank in the chest. He fell to the ground and then crawled away."

The bespectacled boy with the rifle then shot another student, who hobbled down the hallway. The suspect was arrested by Const. Dennis Reimer, the school resource officer, who is also a member of the Taber Police Service.

Myers principal Don Gellatly said the school has been "inundated" with condolences and offers of help. Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said he was "shocked and deeply saddened" by the tragedy.

"The loss of a young life is always difficult to accept. But the senselessness of this act of violence makes it even more painful and all the more difficult to accept and comprehend," Chretien said in a statement.

Victim's father: 'Things have to change'

Lang's father, the Rev. Dale Lang, called for reconciliation. "May God have mercy on this broken society and all the hurting people in it," he said at a news conference Thursday. "We pray that people will see by this incident that lots of things have to change in our society. Lots of things need to be healed."

Students said the suspect was unpopular and said he had left Myers and started home schooling because he didn't like the teachers or the school's curriculum.

Student Carl Jarvis, who said he has known the suspect for four years, described him as an avid television watcher and computer buff. "Nobody really had anything against him, he was just sort of there. He just did his own thing a lot of the time," Jarvis said, adding that he didn't seem like a person "who would be influenced by TV or video games."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.