2 dead, including gunman, in high school shooting

People react as they wait at a church, Friday, Oct. 24, 2014, where students were taken to be reunited with parents following a shooting at Marysville Pilchuck High School in Marysville, Wash.

A student opened fire in a high school cafeteria north of Seattle on Friday, killing at least one person and shooting several others in the head, officials said. The gunman also died in the attack.

Marysville Police Commander Robb Lamoureux said the shooter was a student at Marysville Pilchuck High School, but he could not provide more information including what prompted the shooting, who the gunman was and who he shot. Lamoureux said he did not know if the shooter died of a self-inflicted wound.

Four other young people were brought to Providence Everett medical center, said Chief Medical Officer Joanne Roberts. Three had head wounds and were in "critical" condition, while one considered stable enough to transport was taken to another medical center in Seattle, she said.

Students who were in the cafeteria at the time said the gunman stared at the students as he shot them. They described a chaotic scene at the school, located about 30 miles north of Seattle, as students started running away from the cafeteria and building after the shots were fired.

Student Alan Perez told KING-TV he was eating his lunch at a nearby table when he heard the gunshots.

"He had a little gun in his hand. I saw the flash from the muzzle," he said.

Another student, Austin Taylor, told the station the shooter "was just staring down every one of his victims as he shot them."

Cedar Parker, a 17-year-old senior, told The Associated Press he was driving away from the campus for lunch when he saw students running from the school and trying to jump a fence. Parker let several of them in his car. He heard other students yelling for their friends: "Where are you?"

Parker would have been nearby if he had chosen to eat in the cafeteria, he said: "Leaving saved my life."

A crowd of parents waited in the parking lot outside a nearby church where they were being reunited with their children. Buses pulled up periodically to drop off students evacuated from the school, with some running to hug their mothers or fathers. Some parents were sent back to their cars to get their identifications before they could leave with their children.

Ayn Dietrich, an FBI spokeswoman in Seattle, said the agency had personnel on their way to the scene to help authorities with the investigation.

The latest school shooting in the region happened at Seattle Pacific University, where a gunman killed one student and wounded two others on June 5.

Associated Press photographer Ted Warren contributed to this report from Marysville, and AP writers Gene Johnson and Martha Bellisle from Seattle.