School vice principal shot by student dies
An Omaha assistant principal, one of two school administrators shot by a student who later killed himself, has died from her wounds, police said late Wednesday.
Millard South High School's Vicki Kaspar, 58, had been in critical condition after being shot twice in the torso, police said. She died at a hospital.
Principal Curtis Case remains in stable condition.
Robert Butler, Jr., 17, the son of a police detective, shot himself in his car, authorities said after finding his red Honda a mile from the school about 40 minutes after the shooting.
Butler had transferred in November to Millard South from Lincoln Southwest High School but said in a suicide note left on his Facebook page that the school "drove me to this."
"Everybody that used to know me I'm sry but Omaha changed me and (expletive) me up. and the school I attend is even worse ur gonna here about the evil (expletive) I did but that (expletive) school drove me to this. I wont u guys to remember me for who I was b4 this ik. I greatly affected the lives of the families ruined but I'm sorry. goodbye," Butler posted on the social media site.
Kaspar suspended Butler from the school on Wednesday morning when classes resumed after the winter break, for using his vehicle to tear up the football field, NBC station WOWT reported. He returned to Kaspar's office during the lunch hour and shot her, police said.
Case, 45, heard the shots and came to the office where he was hit three times by gunfire. The shots did not hit any vital organs.
Butler's motive was under investigation, Omaha Police Chief Alex Hayes told reporters, but his father was a police detective, which gave the son access to firearms.
Sources told WOWT that the gun Butler used appeared to be a Glock, the gun commonly used by law enforcement officers.
"Tragedy has hit the Omaha Police Department as the suspect's father is an Omaha Police detective," Hayes said. "We are talking to him."
Case, in stable but serious condition at Creighton University Medical Center, had been at the school for five or six years, Millard Schools Superintendent Keith Lutz said.
Kaspar was a veteran administrator at the school, Lutz said.
The school was equipped with security cameras and guards and performed safety drills, Lutz said. "But nothing prepares you," he said.
Conner Gerner said he remembered Butler as being energetic, fun and outgoing. Gerner said Butler sometimes got in trouble for speaking out too much in class, but he did not seem angry.
Officials at the Lincoln, Neb., school Butler formerly attended declined to provide details about Butler's student record. But Lincoln Southwest High School Principal Rob Slauson said Butler was involved in few, if any, activities before transferring to the new school.
"I think it's safe to say that in the yearbook, there was one picture of Robert Butler, and that was his school picture," Slauson said.
Hayes provided no details on the weapon Butler used or how he obtained it.
Authorities first received reports of the shooting around 12:50 p.m. The school was immediately locked down, but within two hours, students were being released in groups.
When the first group of students emerged, parents began applauding. Some of the students smiled, raised their hands in the air and flashed a V for victory sign.
Crystal Losole, whose son and a nephew are juniors at the school, said she got a call from her son when he was hiding in the kitchen.
Hugging him later and weeping, Losole said when she learned of the shooting, "My knees kind of buckled."
Her son, Skyler Marion, said he was in the cafeteria when Assistant Principal Brad Millard loudly announced that there was "a code red" and that everybody needed to evacuate.
At first, nobody believed Millard, Skyler said. But when Millard's face turned white, students knew it was no joke.
John Manna, who lives two blocks from the school, said he knows Kaspar because his older son graduated from high school with her son in 1996.
"I was just shocked. I can't think of a nicer person. I can't see how anyone would be cross with her," Manna said.
The shooting news jolted the suburban neighborhood in west Omaha where the principal lives.
"I'm really sad," said Judy Robison, who lives six houses away from the Case family. "There's been shootings downtown, but we're really pretty insulated out here."
The school on the west side of Omaha has about 2,100 students.