Police shoot and kill armed student outside Wisconsin middle school

MOUNT HOREB, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Police shot and killed a Wisconsin student outside a Dane County middle school on Wednesday morning, May 1.

Attorney General Josh Kaul said an armed student brought a gun to Mount Horeb Middle School but was stopped by police before he could get inside.

Mount Horeb is a town of fewer than 8,000 about 15 miles southwest of Madison. The entire school district here went into lockdown citing an "active shooter" situation at the middle school.

Kaul said the male student, whose name and age were not released, approached the middle school before being confronted by multiple Mount Horeb police officers.

"Police officers from the Mount Horeb Police Department responded to a report of an individual with a weapon outside the middle school," Kaul said. "Police officers responded to that threat, and they used deadly force."

A police source told CBS 58 the gunman opened fire on a group of students who were taking part in an activity outside the school, but he missed everyone before officers shot and killed him.

Kaul would not confirm that detail, but he said multiple officers were on leave because of their role in the response, including a school resource officer.

Kaul said the officers were wearing body cameras.

After the incident, schools remained on lockdown and parents waited until late Wednesday evening to be reunited with students, who were released in small clusters.

"It was an extremely difficult day, just not knowing what was going on," said Sarah, a parent of a high school student who did not want to give her last name.

7th grader Malloy Slack said he was sitting in class when a teacher frantically rushed over from another room.

"There was a teacher, he ran up to our door," Slack said. "And he said, 'Lockdown! Lockdown!'"

Slack said while his room was on lockdown, he believed he heard a single gunshot followed by an echo from that shot.

"I think it was one shot because when you hear a gunshot, it sounds like two when you're further away," he said.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) is leading the investigation into the shooting.

Superintendent Steve Salerno told reporters schools in the district will be closed Thursday, but support staff will be present in case students want to show up and talk through their experience. Salerno said the goal was for classes to resume Friday.

Salerno credited recent additions paid for by a referendum that allowed the district to add new security measures, including a vestibule. Even then, he said there was no way to truly prepare for such an incident.

"It's an out-of-body experience, quite frankly," Salerno said. "It's an experience you pray to God every day you don't have to enter into."

District officials told parents to wait at the bus garage to be reunited with their kids. Kaul said one reason for the long wait was DOJ investigators were interviewing kids individually, but wanted to make sure the students' parents were present for those interviews.

While lots of questions remained unanswered, the raw emotion of the reunited families -- often times, their arms were draped across each other with parents' eyes watery -- made one thing certain.

"It was a bad day and a scary day," Sarah said. "But we're all very relieved that it didn't end up worse than it was."