March 7, 2007

MIDLAND, Mich. - A teenager shot his former girlfriend four times outside her high school, then killed himself in one of two fatal U.S. school shootings Wednesday, authorities said. Jessica Forsyth, 17, was taken to Hurley Medical Center in Flint, where she was in serious but stable condition, hospital spokeswoman Christie White said Wednesday afternoon.

Midland Police Chief James St. Louis said the gunman, identified as David Turner, 17, of nearby Coleman, died in the parking lot.

Turner had gone to H.H. Dow High School on Wednesday morning to try to talk to Jessica, but he was turned away by school officials, the police chief said. The boy then called her and asked her to meet him outside the building.

After a conversation in the parking lot, Turner pulled a gun out of a backpack and shot her four times before turning the gun on himself, St. Louis said.

The girl's mother, who had dropped her daughter off at the school, saw the shooting from her car and drove between the two to try to protect the girl, authorities said.

The school, about 100 miles northwest of Detroit, was locked down after the shooting. Dow High is named after the founder of chemical giant Dow Chemical Co. and has 1,500 students. No school activities were canceled.

"It's kind of confusing," said junior Cory Hearns, who was taking an economics exam at the time. "I don't know what to say about it. People didn't know what to think or what was going on."