Teacher shot, suspect found dead
PORTSMOUTH, Ohio (AP) - February 7, 2008 The teacher, Christi Layne, was in critical condition at a
hospital in nearby Huntington, W.Va., a hospital spokeswoman said.
Police originally said William Michael Layne shot his wife at
Notre Dame Elementary, but Chief Charles Horner said it was unclear
whether a gunshot fired in the school hit her.
Minutes before the teacher was stabbed, police say her husband
stabbed and wounded a different woman in an alley about five blocks
from the school.
Horner said at a news conference that he did not know whether
that victim, Stephanie Loop, 22, knew the teacher. Loop was also in
critical condition.
Christi Layne had filed for divorce Jan. 25.
"She was terrified something like this would happen," said
Rebecca Bennett, Christi Layne's attorney.
The shooting happened around 9 a.m. at the Catholic school on
Portsmouth's main road. Student Emmaly Baker said she hid in the
classroom's coatroom when the gunman came in.
"We heard gunshots, and we heard her yelling. I was scared,"
she told WSAZ-TV. "The police officer came and got us and she was
still laying there and she was hurt really bad."
The suspect fled, and for hours after the shooting, a SWAT team
surrounded a house about two miles away. Neighbors saw officers
shooting at the house at one point, and police said those shots
were with low-caliber bullets used to disable a surveillance camera
Layne had installed in his yard.
Neighbor Jack Freeland said police eventually broke through the
door with a battering ram and sent in a robot.
Police had been involved in a domestic dispute between the
Laynes about two weeks ago, Horner said, but he did not give
details.
The 56-year-old suspect, known as Mike, was a retired assistant
director at the city's water distribution plant. He apparently shot
himself in the head with a shotgun, Coroner Terry Johnson said. He
was found in the garage behind his house near the school, Horner
said.
Freeland, 37, who often talked with the suspect, said that the
couple had separated last summer and that Layne had been acting
strangely for several months.
"At nighttime, he was out digging up his yard at 1, 2 in the
morning," he said.
Parents, many with cell phones clutched to their ears,
congregated across the street from the school and began leaving
with their children around 10:30 a.m., said Kathy Hall, the office
manager at the Cornerstone United Methodist Church, which also is
across the street.
"I wasn't afraid for my own safety, I was afraid for the
children, because these turn out so terrible, you know," Hall
said.
The scene was chaotic, with police cars and few ambulances
descending on the school, and the fire department blocked off the
street.
The school and another Catholic school nearby were locked down,
said Deacon Tom Berg, vice chancellor of the Roman Catholic Diocese
of Columbus. The diocese was sending a crisis team. Local public
schools also were locked down, said Superintendent Jan Broughton,
who oversees the community's public schools.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)