Wis. High School Student Who Held Class Hostage Dies

Principal - "I was unaware of any problems with this particular student."

"I was unaware of any problems with this particular student," Lambie told today's news conference. "He was a student in good standing. ... He was an outdoorsman. He liked hunting and fishing."

Marinette County District Attorney Allen Brey called the hostage situation a "terrible tragedy" and said authorities may "never truly know why this happened."

Skorik said investigators will still trying to determine where Hengel obtained the two firearms, a .22-caliber and a 9-mm semiautomatic, that he took into the sixth-period class.

Students said the ordeal began between 1:30 and 2 p.m. Monday during a Western civilization class, while they were watching a film about Greek myths. Student Austin Biehl told WLUK-TV that he thought Hengel was sick because he briefly left the room, but then returned with a bag of guns and opened fire on the film projector.

After firing another round of shots, the gunman asked all the students to dump their cell phones in the middle of the room. When his own cell phone rang, he snapped it in two, student Zach Campbell said.

The gunman seemed more comfortable talking to his fellow students than to the teacher, but he allowed her to keep her cell phone and communicate with police outside, though he didn't talk to hostage negotiators himself, witnesses and police said.

Students said the mood inside the classroom was tense at first, but then they managed to coax Hengel into chatting about his outdoor interests -- even getting him to laugh at one point -- as they tried desperately to win his trust and possibly save their own lives.

"I was scared at the beginning, but as it progressed it was just be calm, stay relaxed," Biehl told WLUK. "Everyone was fine, just relaxed, just like me, except for like two of them."

Five students managed to persuade the gunman to allow them to use the restroom. When they left the classroom, police outside whisked them to safety. One of them, Campbell, said Hengel seemed depressed but didn't seem to want to do his classmates any harm.

"I don't know why he did that," Campbell told The Associated Press. Six of the shooter's good friends were in the class, he noted.

"We just wanted to be on his good side," Campbell said. "It was a very scary event."

Keith Schroeder, a former teacher in the school district who knows the shooter's family, told the Green Bay Press Gazette that he thinks 10th-grade teacher Valerie Burd probably played a key role in securing the safe release of all the students.

"She's very dedicated, educated, loves children," he said. "If I had been in that classroom, I don't know what I'd have been able to do."

The standoff ended when three shots rang out in the classroom. Police then decided to storm the room, fearful of the students' safety. Once inside, they realized that the three shots weren't directed at anyone and that no one was hurt, Police Chief Skorik told WBAY.

But then Hengel shot himself with a single bullet, police said.

"All of the students were safely removed from the school and were put on buses and reunited with their families," Skorik told the TV station. Police later found the guns in the room.

Marinette is a city of about 12,000 residents, about 50 miles north of Green Bay on the state line with Michigan's Upper Peninsula. About 800 students attend the high school.

Principal Lambie said a critical response team will meet Wednesday morning to discuss the hostage situation. Administrators will review potential changes, such as the possibility of adding metal detectors to the school, he said.

"We understand there is a fear factor that we must overcome, but we're the adults and the leaders in the building, so we need to take care of that for our kids," Lambie said.

Brey, the district attorney, said once the investigation is completed, a full report will be available for public review.

"We are going to be able to say at conclusion of this process that anyone may can come and look and see that the situation was appropriately handled by the school authorities, by the police [and] by the other agencies that were here," Brey said.