Authorities arrived at Rocori High School at around 11:40 a.m.

COLD SPRING – One student is dead and another hospitalized aftera shooting inside a Minnesota high school.

The shooting happened around 11:35 a.m. inside of Rocori High School in Cold Spring during a physical education class. Authorities said one of the victims was shot in the school's gymnasium, and the other was shot in the weight room.

Physical education teacher Mark Johnson took the suspect, who is identified as a freshman student, into custody, the district said. According to authorities, the teacher talked the student into putting down his gun.

Aaron Rollins

Aaron Rollins, a senior, died at St. Cloud Hospital, spokeswoman Jeanine Nistler said.
The other wounded student was in critical condition at the hospital. Police would not identify him or the suspected shooter.

"The word 'tragedy' is used a lot, this is it," said Cold Spring Police Chief Phil Jones. "It really can't get any worse than this. We're a small community."
The Stearns County sheriff's department said it has recovered a small-caliber handgun from the scene.

"There was kids crying, and it was really quiet," junior Jamie Toddingham told Eyewitness News. "We were sitting at a window where we could see cops everywhere.

"I was just thinking about, it could've been me."

Chopper 5 saw an officer talking to a group of students outside the school.

Sources told Eyewitness News that one of the injured students was shot in the head, and the other was shot in the abdomen. It is unclear which student was Rollins.

In St. Paul, Gov. Tim Pawlenty briefly talked about the shootings.

"It is a tragedy and another unfortunate incident in our schools," said Gov. Tim Pawlenty. "Our prayers and our thoughts go to the families impacted by this tragedy."

State Education Department commissioner Cheri Pierson Yecke also offered her sympathies. She also commended the school for its quick response to the shootings.

Photo of Mark Johnson taken from the district's Web page.

"They had a plan, they were preapred to take action in a difficult situation, and they knew what to do," Yecke said in a statement. "I would like to especially commend teacher Mark Johnson for his corageous actions, which clearly prevented further violence.
The school went into what's called "code red" immediately after the shooting. Teachers closed and locked all doors and kept students inside their classrooms. One classroom, according to a source inside the school, also barricaded the door with bookshelves.

Later, the school was evacuated and students were sent home. The building, along with Rocori Middle School, closed at 1 p.m.

At the end of the lockdown, students left the school and the building was closed.

In addition to those two closings, all three elementary schools in the district closed at 2 p.m. This included Cold Spring, Richmond and John Clark schools.
The name for Rocori Area School District comes from the first two letters of each of the communities it serves: Rockville, Cold Spring and Richmond.

The district serves 2,673 students in elementary, middle and high schools, and is located about 60 miles northwest of the Twin Cities.

Doug Gary of the Minnesota Department of Education said that, to the best of the department's records, there has never been a fatal shooting on school grounds in the state.

However, according to the National School Safety Center, there was a shooting death suicide at Middle River School in Middle River Minnesota in Frebruary 1993. In that incident, a 14 year old student shot himself in the head with a rifle he had brought to school

Gray said that there was one "serious incident" at Ricori High School during the 2001-2002 school year. That incident, he said, did not involve a gun.

Authorities from the state patrol, Cold Spring, Stearns County, Waite Park, St. Joseph and the state Department of Natural Resources all responded to the shooting.

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