A grinning teenage gunman opened fire on fellow students at a high school where he was often taunted today, killing two people and injuring 14 others, according to reports from the scene of the latest act of violence to terrorize an American school.
The shooting at Santana High School in a suburb northeast of San Diego first created scenes of disbelief as students thought a cap gun was going off and then scenes of mass panic when they realised it was a gun and started fleeing for their lives.
The shooter - a ninth grader believed to be about 15 years old - opened fire in a hallway after loading his gun in the boys' restroom. He apparently fired indiscriminately at anyone in sight, hitting two students fatally.
It was the latest act of school violence in the United States since April 20th, 1999, when two teenage gunmen killed 13 people at Columbine High School in Colorado before taking their own lives.
The alleged shooter was reported to often have been taunted by others but "able to shrug it off."
US President Mr George W. Bush decried the shooting as "a disgraceful act of cowardice."
Friends said the alleged gunman talked over the weekend of going to school with a gun but then when questioned by adults he claimed to be only kidding and said his guns were locked up at home. His friends said they even patted him down before going into the school but did not find any weapon.
Mr Chris Reynolds, an adult who knew the alleged shooter, said the boy began talking about the violent plan over the weekend - but that few people took it seriously.
"Everybody kind of thought he was joking around," Mr Reynolds told a television reporter from local station KGTV. "If somebody did die over there and stuff, that's going to be haunting me for a long time."
Mr Reynolds said the suspect was often the butt of jokes at school, but that the usually replied with a joke and smile.
"He's a kid who gets picked on a lot because he does not stand up for himself. Most of the time he just takes it. He is joking around about it. ... I didn't think he was serious."
Witnesses said the boy was smiling as he opened fire with a handgun on his fellow students. The boy was in custody, police said.