Shooting at Taft Union High School in CA/Two Injured, teacher Ryan Herber & campus supervisor Kim Lee Fields talk 16 yr old Bryan Oliver into laying firearm down/Oliver to be charged as an adult w/ two counts attempted murder

(CBS/AP) TAFT, Calif. - A shooting has been reported at a high school in Taft, Calif. One student is said to have been shot.

Kern County sheriff's spokesman Ray Pruitt also says a suspect is in custody and is believed to be a student as well..

Pruitt says the wounded student was flown to a hospital in Bakersfield.
He says it's believed a shotgun was used in the attack.

Taft is a community of about 7,000 some 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles, in the southern San Joaquin Valley.

City manager's assistant Debra Elliott says the shooting was reported shortly after 9 a.m. Thursday.
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(CBS/AP) TAFT, Calif. - A student was wounded in a shooting at a San Joaquin Valley high school Thursday and a suspect was taken into custody, officials said.
The shooting occurred about 9 a.m. at Taft Union High School, about 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

The wounded student was flown to a hospital in Bakersfield, said Ray Pruitt, spokesman for the Kern County Sheriff's Department. There was no immediate word on the victim's condition.

"We have a suspect in custody," Pruitt said, adding that the person was believed to be a student.

According to CBS affiliate KBAK, county fire Capt. Eric Coughren said a second victim suffered only minor injuries and refused treatment.

Pruitt said it's believed a shotgun was used in the attack.

The station reported the shooting happened on the second floor of the school's science building.

KERO-TV Bakersfield reported that the station received phone calls from people inside the school who hid in closets.

It was not immediately clear how many students are enrolled at the high school, which teaches 9th through 12th grades.
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A student opened fire in a central California high school on Thursday, critically wounding one student and narrowly missing another before being talked down by a “heroic” teacher, law enforcement officials said.
The teacher suffered a “pellet to the head” and is expected to recover, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said during a press conference. At least two other students were lightly wounded in the panic after shots erupted around 9:30 a.m. inside Taft High School, in Taft, Calif., about 40 miles south of Bakersfield.

The 16-year-old male shooter was in custody and a shotgun was removed from campus. The wounded student, also 16, was airlifted to Bakersfield in critical condition after suffering a bullet to the upper right chest, Ryan Dunbier, a senior deputy with the Kern County Sheriff's Department, told the Daily News.
The teen shooter apparently had intended his targets, Youngblood said.
He walked in late to his first period class armed with a shotgun and “multiple rounds,” aiming and firing at the first student, Youngblood said.
The teen then “named a second (student)...he tried to shoot but missed,” the sheriff said.
The teacher, presiding over a class of about 28 students “engaged” the student in conversation and a campus supervisor rushed into the room, urging the teen to lay down his weapon.
“He in fact told the teacher ‘I don’t want to shoot you,’” Youngblood said.
The "heroic" action of the teacher saved lives, he said.
The shooter and his first victim had a “dialogue” before Thursday’s incident, but the details were not known. Law enforcement declined to comment on rumors that the alleged shooter had put together a hit list last year or was the victim of bullying.
Terrified students were evacuated and worried parents gathered to pick their kids up in a nearby football field.
"There was just blood everywhere," a sobbing student told KERO-TV.
The school shooting came as Vice President Joe Biden meets with victims of gun violence and gun rights groups to try and hammer out legislation to curb gun violence in the U.S. He is due to give recommendations to President Barack Obama next Tuesday.
The president put Biden in charge of a task force to examine gun control laws following the massacre of 20 small children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Conn., on Dec. 14.
The FBI was also on scene to assist. Local law enforcement when room-to-room to clear the school, Dunbier told the News.
Law enforcement said the situation could have been worse.
“This is a tragedy,” Youngblood said. “But not as bad as it could have been.”
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UPDATED, 12:37 p.m. PT: At least one person was shot when a student opened fire at a high school in California on Thursday morning, authorities there say.
The shooting occurred in the science building at Taft Union High School in Taft, Calif., at approximately 9 a.m. local time, a Kern County Sheriff's official told Yahoo News.
The suspected shooter—a 16-year-old male student at the school—did not show up for the start of first period, police say. He entered the school with a 12-gauge shotgun and interrupted his first-period class, shooting one student.
The victim, also 16, was airlifted to Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, Calif., with a shotgun wound to the upper right chest. He's in critical but stable condition.
The gunman then said a second student's name in the 28-person class and fired the shotgun again, but missed, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said. A teacher and a campus supervisor engaged him in conversation inside the classroom, school officials added, and were able to convince him to put the shotgun down. The shooter was then taken into custody by police.
The teacher was treated at the scene for a pellet wound to the head, police said. (It's unclear whether the wound was from birdshot, Youngblood said.) Another student who was near the shotgun when it was fired was taken to the hospital, where she was treated for hearing loss.
According to the school's website, two campus supervisors and an armed Kern County Sheriff's officer "monitor the campus before, during, and after school." However, the officer was not at the school at the time of the shooting, police said. About 1,000 students attend the high school.
ABC's Kero-Bakersfield affiliate said it received calls from students who were hiding in closets inside the school, located about 120 miles north of Los Angeles.
Students were evacuated while sheriff and fire personnel conducted room-to-room searches. One student told the network that he was in another building participating in an "active shooter drill" when the shooting occurred.
The high school, which was featured in the 1986 film "The Best of Times" starring Robin Williams and Kurt Russell, cancelled Friday classes.
The shootings come less than a month after 26 people, including 20 children, were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history. The massacre led to calls for reforms to the country's gun laws.
On Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden, appointed to lead a task force to reduce U.S. gun violence, was scheduled to meet with members of the National Rifle Association in Washington to discuss gun control.
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Taft Police Chief Ed Whiting speaks to concerned parents after a shooting at Taft Union High School, Jan. 10, 2013.

This is never-ending. The media is not helping IMHO. It just gives these kids more ideas.

The Huffington Post | By Anna Almendrala
Posted: 01/10/2013 5:40 pm EST

Politicians responded swiftly to the news of a high school shooting in Taft, Calif., calling for an end to gun violence in schools and expressing sympathy for the victims and their families.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), whose own father attended Taft Union High School, lamented the frequency of school shootings in America and asked, "how many more shootings must there be in America before we come to the realization that guns and grievances do not belong together?"

Sen. Feinstein had promised to reintroduce an expired bill banning assault weapons after a mass shooting in Newtown, Conn. claimed the lives of 28 people Dec. 2012. She had first suggested the federal ban on assault weapons when gun violence in Aurora, Colo. killed 12 and injured 58 earlier in the year, reports the Associated Press.

State Sen. Jean Fuller (R-Bakersfield), who represents Taft, called for prosecution to the "full extent of the law" after the shooting Thursday but stopped short of calling for a reform of gun laws.

"Let me be absolutely clear," wrote State Sen. Fuller on her site. "Violence directed at our children and teachers in schools is unacceptable."

More California politicians have weighed in on the shooting at Taft Union High School, and some also made reference to the recent Newtown, Conn. shooting. Story continues below...

“Today comes word of another tragic shooting at an American school. I have visited this school over the years—in fact, my own father attended Taft Union.

“At this moment my thoughts and prayers are with the victims, and I wish them a speedy recovery.

“But how many more shootings must there be in America before we come to the realization that guns and grievances do not belong together?” -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein

Taft Union High School is usually secured by an armed guard. But on the day the suspected shooter, a 16-year-old student, entered the high school armed with a shotgun, the guard happened to be snowed in.

A teacher and campus supervisor were able to talk the shooter into putting down his gun, but not before he wounded two people: a student and the teacher who helped calm him down. The teacher's wound was minor and did not need to be treated, but the student was critically wounded and airlifted to nearby Kern Medical Center, reports KGET.

The shooter was taken into custody.

Story is developing...

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It's not just about assault weapons..any gun should NOT be in the hands of kids w/out parental supervision..could go on and on w/this subject ad nauseam.

Authorities say a boy who fired on classmates and wounded one at a rural California high school had planned the attack and targeted students he felt had bullied him for more than a year.

Kern County sheriff Donny Youngblood said at a news conference Thursday night that the 16-year-old used a shotgun that belonged to his brother and went to bed Wednesday night with a plan to shoot two fellow students.

Youngblood says surveillance video shows the boy trying to conceal the gun as he nervously enters Taft Union High School through a side entrance after school had started Thursday morning.

The boy entered his classroom, shot and critically injured one student, then fired on others before a teacher and another staff member talked him into surrendering.

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Yet another poor kid bullied. I would like to know if he ever voiced his concerns to the school staff/counselor or his parents. I wonder if some of these kids never discuss it w/anyone thereby keeping it locked inside of them until they go ballistic. So damned sad for everyone!

TAFT, Calif. — California authorities are investigating allegations that a 16-year-old boy held in a classroom shooting that wounded a classmate had been suspended from school last year for having a hit list.

Kern County Sheriff's Department spokesman Ray Pruitt says the reports of the hit list are being looked into as part of the investigation into Thursday's shooting at Taft Union High School in the city of Taft.

Almost immediately after the shooting, other students began giving accounts about the suspect having drawn up a list at some point.

The sheriff's spokesman says the teen was booked into juvenile hall for investigation of two counts of attempted murder and one count of assault with a deadly weapon. Investigators plan to submit their case to the district attorney's office on Monday.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

The 16-year-old boy had just wounded a classmate he claimed had bullied him, fired two more rounds at students fleeing their first-period science class then faced teacher Ryan Heber.

"I don't want to shoot you," he told the popular teacher, who was trying to coax the teen into giving up the shotgun he still held.

Recounting the suspect's words, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said the confrontation was enough of a distraction to give 28 students time to escape their classroom Thursday at Taft High School.

The violence came just minutes after administrators had announced new lockdown safety procedures prompted by the Newtown, Conn., school massacre.

"Just 10 minutes before it happened our teachers were giving us protocol because of what happened in Connecticut," said student Oscar Nuno, who was across campus from the science building when an announcer on the speaker system said the school was under lockdown "and it was not a drill."

The teen victim, who classmates said played football last year for the Taft Wildcats, was in critical but stable condition at a Kern County hospital Thursday night. He was expected to undergo surgery on Friday.

The suspect surrendered his shotgun to Heber and campus supervisor Kim Lee Fields. His pockets were stuffed with more ammunition, 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."

Heber's forehead was grazed by a stray pellet, but Youngblood said the teacher who had graduated from the Taft school two decades ago was unaware he had been hit and didn't need medical attention.

"He's the nicest teacher I know," Nuno said. "He loves his students and he always wants to help."

Administrators closed the school Friday as residents of this remote town of 9,400 that sits amid tumbleweeds and oil fields about 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles tried to make sense of what happened.

"We know each other here," said former Mayor Dave Noerr. "We drive pickups and work hard and hunt and fish. This is a grassroots town. This is the last place you'd think something like this would happen."

The 16-year-old suspect's name is on the lips of everyone in town, but authorities aren't releasing it because he's a juvenile. He had felt bullied by the victim for more than a year, said Youngblood, who added that the claim was still being investigated.

Trish Montes described her neighbor as "a short guy" and "small" who was teased about his stature by many.

Montes said her son had worked at the school and tutored the boy last year.

"All I ever heard about him was good things from my son," Montes said. "He wasn't Mr. Popularity, but he was a smart kid. It's a shame. My kid said he was like a genius."

On Wednesday night the teen went home and plotted revenge against two students, Youngblood said. He found a gun that authorities believe belonged to the suspect's older brother and went to bed that night plotting revenge against two students.

"He planned the event," Youngblood said. "Certainly he believed that the two people he targeted had bullied him, in his mind. Whether that occurred or not, we don't know yet."

The suspect arrived after 9 a.m. Thursday, and video surveillance cameras captured him looking nervous as he entered through a side door, Youngblood said. He made his way to the second floor of the school's science building, where Heber's class with 28 students inside was under way.

The suspect walked in a door close to the front of the classroom and shot his classmate. When the shots were fired, Heber tried to get the more than two dozen students out a back door and engaged the shooter in conversation to distract him, Youngblood said.

"The heroics of these two people goes without saying. ... They could have just as easily ... tried to get out of the classroom and left students, and they didn't," the sheriff said. "They knew not to let him leave the classroom with that shotgun."

"When your son does the right thing, you have to feel fantastic," said the teacher's father, David Heber, who also lives in Taft.

He described his son as a "teacher who knows every single one of his students and not just by name."

He said his son had been teaching science to different grade levels for seven or eight years. The younger Heber was student body president when he went to Taft, his father said.

Heber couldn't remember any other time when a confrontation turned so violent. "I don't think he's ever been in a fight in his life. He can always talk himself out of it."

Youngblood said that the suspect would be charged with attempted murder. The district attorney will decide whether he's charged as an adult, Youngblood said.

Authorities said a female student was hospitalized with possible hearing damage because the shotgun was fired close to her ear, and another girl suffered minor injuries during the scramble to flee.

Wilhelmina Reum, whose daughter, Alexis Singleton, is a fourth-grader at a nearby elementary school, got word of the attack while she was about 35 miles away in Bakersfield and immediately sped back to Taft.

"I just kept thinking this can't be happening in my little town," she told The Associated Press.

Officials said there's usually an armed officer on campus, but the person wasn't there because he was snowed in.

The attack there came less than a month after a gunman massacred 20 children and six women at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., then killed himself.

That shooting prompted President Barack Obama to promise new efforts to curb gun violence. Vice President Joe Biden, who was placed in charge of the initiative, said he would deliver new policy proposals to the president by next week.
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Teacher Ryan Heber (pictured) and campus supervisor Kim Lee Fields are credited with talking down a shooter at Taft Union High School in Taft, Calif.

TAFT — Authorities are investigating widespread reports that a boy who opened fire in a Taft Union High School classroom Thursday specifically targeted students on a hit list.

The alleged list was compiled last year, members of the school community told reporters. The allegations surfaced quickly Thursday morning following the boy's use of a shotgun to critically injure a classmate and graze his teacher before he put down the weapon.

His science teacher, Ryan Heber, and campus supervisor Kim Fields were immediately hailed as heroes for talking the suspect into laying down his shotgun.

The teacher suffered a minor wound to the head when he was grazed by a pellet. Fields was not hurt.

The suspected shooter, a 16-year-old boy who law enforcement has not named, is in custody.

The victim, who authorities also declined to identify, was in critical but stable condition Thursday afternoon after being airlifted to Kern Medical Center and undergoing surgery.

The boy was in an induced coma, standard procedure to keep him stable and safe, doctors said.
In addition to the student who was rushed to KMC, a female student may have suffered hearing damage due to the close range of a shot, and another girl injured her ankle as she fell over a desk trying to get away, authorities said.

The acting superintendent of the Taft Union High School District said there would be no school Friday, but classes would resume Monday.

The incident unfolded shortly after 9 a.m. in a classroom on the second floor of the school’s physical sciences building.

“He had intended targets. There's no question,” Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said of the suspect.

The student in critical condition was sought specifically, and the suspect named a second intended target who was not hit, Youngblood said. Officials believe two to four rounds were fired.

Youngblood said there had been a dialogue in the past between the suspect and the student who was shot.

The boy told authorities he had been bullied for more than a year.

“Certainly the two people that he targeted had bullied him, in his mind,” Youngblood said.

The department is investigating reports that the boy had planned the shooting in advance.

“He knew what he was going to do today,” Youngblood said Thursday evening.

The alleged shooter was late to his first period class when he arrived with a 12-gauge shotgun after entering the building through a side entrance, Youngblood said.

A neighbor in the area reported seeing a boy walking to school with a gun and called 911. The Taft Police Department had two units on scene within 60 seconds of the call, said Police Chief Ed Whiting.

The first victim was shot after he stood up. Frightened classmates ran to the back of the room, and others ran into a storage closet.
The suspect allegedly shot at them as they fled, but missed.

Campus supervisor Fields got to the classroom before police. He rushed there when he heard shots fired.

The suspect pointed the gun in several directions while the teacher and campus supervisor talked to him. At one point, the boy told the teacher he didn’t want to shoot him, Youngblood said.

Ultimately, Fields and Heber talked the boy into putting the gun down, and the suspect was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

“We really want to commend a teacher and campus supervisor who brought this to a fast resolution,” Whiting said.

The boy had other rounds in his pockets, so the incident could potentially have been much worse, authorities said.

Youngblood said it appears the shotgun belonged to the boy’s brother.

Neither Heber nor Fields could be reached for comment Thursday. The school district instructed staff and faculty not to speak with the media.

The teacher’s father, David Heber, said he had heard rumors of a shooting at the school Thursday morning but wasn't initially worried.

"His students like him a whole bunch," said the father, 70. "He's not the kind of teacher a student would try to hurt. He's definitely someone who could talk a kid down in an emergency."

After the incident, Ryan Heber sent a mobile phone text message to his mother, who is out of town this week, letting her know there had been a shooting at school but that he was OK.

"It's always smart to text your mother if there's a crisis," the elder Heber said. “I’m just glad he’s safe.”

Ryan Heber's wife is also an employee at Taft Union High School. Emmy Lou Heber works in the business office, David Heber said.

"I think she's probably more traumatized by all this than my son," he said. "He's very strong and doesn't get too emotional."

Meghan King, 20, a former student of Heber’s who was also an aide in his classes, said Heber “always knew how to make you feel better” and that she wasn’t surprised that he would take action in an emergency.

A family friend said the victim of the shooting is a junior at Taft.

The boy suffered chest and abdominal wounds but is expected to pull through, said Dr. Ruby Skinner, head of trauma at KMC.

Skinner said the student arrived at the county hospital with shotgun injuries to the right side of his chest.

"He came in very unstable," Skinner said, "and was taken immediately to the operating room with serious injuries to his chest and intra-abdominal area."

The boy’s wounds were repaired, but his injuries included trauma to his lungs and liver, so further surgery will be necessary, she said.

"He's on life support and is stable but still critical," Skinner said.

He is expected to get through this, she added.

"He's a very lucky kid. These are very serious injuries, but he has youth on his side."

Youngblood said there is usually an armed Taft Police Department officer on campus, but he was not there Thursday because he had been snowed in.

Ironically, the school had just held a staff meeting at 7 a.m. to talk about how to deal with active shooters. As a result, many teachers initially thought the lockdown was a drill.

A school safety plan posted on the district’s website says the school uses a digital video surveillance system that includes 43 security cameras in common areas in an effort to monitor campus activity. A campus security guard monitors the school grounds, and the high school district contracts with the Kern County Sheriff’s Department to employ a full-time school resource officer.

Schools all over the country have been reviewing their safety plans after last month’s shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Before he was killed, the gunman there killed 20 children and six adults at the school and his mother off campus. The tragedy renewed a national debate about gun control.

The Taft shooting occurred on the same day as Vice President Joe Biden’s talks with gun ownership groups and on the same day the suspect in last summer’s movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo. was bound over for trial.

Taft junior Katie Wolfe, 16, said she was sitting two desks away from the victim in earth science class when he was shot.

“The kid came in and he shot and he hit (the student) in the chest,” Wolfe said.

She instinctively dropped to the ground and the shooter fired again.

“(The boy) was bleeding and Kim (Fields) came and just talked him into setting the gun down,” Wolfe said.

After firing the gun, the only thing the shooter said “was that he just wants Jacob,” Wolfe said. She said she wasn’t sure who he was referring to.

“It’s someone that bullied him I guess,” Wolfe said. “(Heber) was trying to talk him into setting the gun down. He was all like, ‘We’ve been good to you.’”

Wolfe said Fields also told the shooter to put the gun down, and that everything would be OK.

“I feel that Kim did really really good and Mr. Heber, he was scared. He did the best he could for being scared,” Wolfe said.

Wolfe said the students were told to get to another classroom and she and the other students scattered. Wolfe ended up in the mechanic shop and hid there with other teenagers.

Mother Cindi Powell of Taft said her daughter Jacqueline Summers, 16, a junior, was in the classroom where the shooting happened. Powell said her daughter called her at 9:12 a.m.

“When I finally got ahold of her she just was screaming hysterically that somebody was shot in her classroom, and it was kind of garbled because she was so upset,” the mother said.

Law enforcement officers were interviewing students who were in the classroom, the girl told her mother.

Eighteen-year-old senior Michael Larsen said he was in the school’s TV production room when the lockdown announcement came. He and other students waited in a windowless room with their teacher.

Larsen found out from text messages that the victim, a friend of his, had been shot.

“I’m actually kind of shaken up right now. You know I was texting all my family and stuff, and I just didn’t think I would make it out of there,” Larsen said as his face fell and he began to cry.

Larsen described his friend as a “really cool guy” with whom he played football.

“He’s a really funny guy once you get to know him. Like some people would take him as this big guy that’s scary and stuff, but he’s like a really big teddy bear,” he said.

RED FLAGS

Friends of the shooter, including Wolfe, said it was not unusual for him to talk about killing people.

“He does say stuff like that a lot. I’ve never heard him say a name that he was gonna shoot anybody in specific,” Wolfe said. “I thought he was just kidding ’cause he’d say it all the time, and he never did anything since freshman year.”

Rebecca Jackson, a 17-year-old senior, was in a physics class one floor above the classroom where the shooting took place.

“I heard a popping noise and then everything went into lockdown. I knew, like immediately, that it was (the suspect),” she said.

The suspect had never been violent before but was anti-social and afraid people would ridicule him, Jackson said. She said she was one of the only people who would talk to him because he would say a lot of “really weird, random crap.”

“He had told me yesterday, some more of that crap. He was joking that he was like gonna kill (the victim) and I thought that it was just a joke because he usually jokes around like that, like telling people that he's gonna kill them, or skin them alive or something, or eat their puppies,” Jackson said. “So I really didn't take that seriously, and he was going around all day telling people that, you know, he was, he might not be there tomorrow and not to worry about it, he might not be around for a little while. No one actually thought that he would do this.”
Jackson said she thought the suspect was scared but “really not that bad of a guy.

“He had a lot of things going for him and a lot of things against him. It really came down to his choice.”

ALL HANDS ON DECK

While the Taft Police Department has jurisdiction over the high school shooting, law enforcement from the sheriff’s department, FBI and California Highway Patrol swarmed the school at 1 Wildcat Way to assist in evacuations and room-to-room searches of the campus.

Hundreds of parents, children and family clogged nearby streets to get to the school and pick up their children, who were released in blocks in the alphabetical order of their last names.

Taft City Councilman Dave Noerr rushed to the scene after hearing initial reports of the shooting. Standing outside the science building at about 10:35 a.m., he said he’d seen personnel from the Sheriff’s Department, SWAT teams, the FBI and the Taft Police Department, plus ambulances and fire trucks.

“All the resources one can possibly imagine to respond to a horrible tragedy are here,” he said.

Harry Starkey is general manager of West Kern Water District, which is next door to the school.

He said he was in a meeting with officials from the city and Taft College at about 9 a.m. when the officials abruptly left the meeting, saying there had been a shooting at the school.

Shortly afterward, Starkey said he saw two helicopters land at the school’s football field.

The West Kern Water District was placed on lockdown as a precaution. The K-8 Taft City School District and Taft College went on lockdown, as well.

The American Red Cross- Kern Chapter sent a team to the high school that included mental health and nurse professionals, as well as trained volunteer disaster responders.

Taft is “a small community. We’re one big family,” Noerr said. “We’re doing everything we can for each other.”
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Wow. So, this kid was "like a genius" and was allegedly bullied for being short. He shot a football player..was probably envious of him. I am NOT in Any way saying he wasn't bullied. Just saying that kids this age are all about their bodies.

I wish Rebecca Jackson would have NOT taken his threats so lightly thinking he was joking. It's amazing that some teens laugh serious things like that off. I hope this is a lesson for ALL teens/young adults..actually EVERYONE. If a person says he is thinking of or going to shoot someone, Don't Take It Lightly. If a person says they want to kill others or themselves, LISTEN and TELL someone.

What a HERO Ryan Heber is!!

TAFT (CBSLA.com) — The 16-year-old who wounded two people in a school shooting at Taft Union High School has been charged as an adult, Kern County’s District Attorney’s office said Monday.

Bryan Oliver has been charged with two counts of attempted murder and three counts of assault with a firearm after he shot a classmate, targeting another and injured a science teacher Jan. 10 around 9 a.m.

According to Taft police, Oliver entered the campus with a 12-gauge shot gun and went to his first period science class where he shot 16-year-old Bowe Cleveland.

Teacher Ryan Heber, with the help of a campus aid, disarmed the suspect who was then taken into custody by authorities. He was carrying dozens of rounds of ammunition.

Students said Oliver was an outcast and often bullied, and Cleveland, a popular 11th grader and athlete, took part in the bullying.

Cleveland was airlifted to Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield for treatment.

Dr. Ruby Skinner, Cleveland’s surgeon, said it’s a miracle he’s alive because his gunshot injures were extensive.


“He sustained potentially lethal injures to his chest and abdominal cavity,” Skinner said.

Cleveland is still in a medically induced coma.

Heber suffered minor injuries and refused treatment on the scene.

Investigators believe the suspect plotted the attack and targeted two specific students he believed bullied him.

Oliver is scheduled to be arraigned Monday at 3 p.m.
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A search warrant for the Facebook profiles of three students at the center of the Taft Union High School shooting in January revealed that the suspected shooter penned a gory story about murder.

In a probable cause statement requesting a judge's permission to obtain Bryan Oliver's Facebook postings, a Kern County Sheriff's Office detective wrote that his investigation led him to a lengthy "poem" that "describes the killing of several people by torture and other morbid means."

On the day of the shooting, classmates and a friend of Oliver's said he was bullied by other students and that he talked about killing people. Students and parents have said that he was suspended briefly last year after he made a hit list.

School officials have refused to comment on those accusations, citing confidentiality rules.

During the investigation of the shooting, Detective Kavin Brewer learned that Oliver had posted a poem called "phycopath" online, according to the warrant. Brewer created a profile on the site allpoetry.com and found the story "Phycopath" by user "bryoliver96."

The story, which was posted in June, details the tribulations of a bullied high school student who slaughters his former tormentors as an adult.

Peers torment the abused main character, "Demian," pretending to befriend him to gain his trust only to use "that to destroy him."

"In school (Demian) couldn't make any friends at all no matter how much he tried. It soon seamed [sic] that everyone that looked at him became determined to make his life hell," the story said.

At graduation in the story, bullies douse Demian with a bucket of goat's blood. Later, after a tour of duty in Iraq and stint in law school, Demian kills the student who tipped the bucket by drowing the bully in the blood of his family members. Demian continues to murder his persecutors in ways that echo their past harassment, including dropping one couple into a pit lined with giant thumbtacks.

Between the scenes of torture, Demian marries a woman who shares his interest in the Industrial Revolution and they have a child. The poem culminates violently when Demian locks his former classmates in a gym during their high school reunion and juggles knives until he makes a cartoon reference and tosses a blade into an onlooker's neck.

Brewer's statement said investigators wanted copies of Oliver's Facebook account information including friends and correspondences to see if he mentioned "killing people or committing shootings, assaults with weapons or other crimes in schools or against specific individuals at the Taft Union High School."

Oliver was identified as the suspect in the shooting by 26 students who were in the classroom when Oliver reportedly opened fire, according to the warrant filed in Kern County Superior Court.

Less than a week after the shooting, a judge granted the detective's request to order Facebook to turn over all information from the accounts of Oliver, Bowe Cleveland, who was critically wounded in the Jan. 10 shooting, and Jacob Nichols, "the second intended target of the shooting."

The detective's probable cause statement said that several students who were in the classroom during the shooting said that Cleveland and Nichols had picked on Oliver before.

The Facebook records were received and stored by the Sheriff's Office, according to documents filed last week to show what the search warrant produced.

Oliver has pleaded not guilty to five felony charges including attempted murder. Oliver's attorney, David Torres, declined to comment on the new information. Prosecutors also declined to comment.

"At this time, the Kern County District Attorney's office has no comment on the situation because it's a pending case," said Assistant District Attorney Scott Spielman.

Cleveland's family has filed a claim against the Taft Union High School District alleging that administrators should have known or knew that Oliver was dangerous. Oliver's next court hearing is in May.

The profile for "bryoliver96" on the poetry website described the author as a "16 year old guy from California," who is playing video games if he isn't writing.

"My motto is: Always eat the cat," the profile said.
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BAKERSFIELD, CA - A Taft teenager will stand trial on charges he shot and tried to kill a classmate at Taft Union High School.

Deputies say Bryan Oliver shot Beau Cleveland in the chest in the science building January 10th.

Oliver's attorney says the teen was badgered at school.

"Somebody allowed incessant bullying regarding this child's appearance and perceived sexual orientation," said Paul Cadman, Deputy Public Defender.

Cadman says everything changed January 10th.

"Children can be cruel, without question. We've all been to high school and there is no question there. But some people snap, and that's what happened here," he added.

For the first time in court Tuesday, the prosecutor played surveillance video from the high school from that day. It shows a teen in dark clothing carrying a shotgun, walk up to the second floor of the science building, pause outside the classroom for about a minute, and then walk in.

Oliver's younger brother and family were in the courtroom for the hearing, but left without comment.

Prosecutor Mark Pafford also turned down an interview request.

An investigator for the prosecution testified he spoke with shooting victim Beau Cleveland who recalled hearing a loud boom that January morning as he was taking a science quiz. He felt a burning sensation in his chest and saw lint from his coat floating in the air then he realized he had been shot.

"Mr. Oliver didn't try to kill anybody that day.Mr. Oliver snapped," said Cadman.

A friend of Oliver told investigators she had seen a hit list Oliver created that included Cleveland's name.

And, another student said Oliver warned him in a class the day before the shooting something bad was going to happen and not to come to school the next day.

Oliver is due back in court for a hearing July 31st.
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TAFT, Calif. - A teenager accused of wounding a classmate at Taft Union High School earlier this year will stand trial as an adult on attempted murder charges.

A Kern County judge ruled at Wednesday that there is sufficient evidence to try suspect Bryan Oliver on two counts of premeditated attempted murder and three counts of assault with a firearm.

The defense said that Oliver, 16 at the time of the January 10 shooting, should have a fitness hearing before being charged as an adult.

The Kern County Superior Court Judge overruled the motion.
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