Brandon Michael Morrissette, the student who April 3 brought a handgun to West Geauga High School with plans to shoot multiple students, is currently being held under psychiatric care, officials said during a 1 p.m. press conference at the school district’s board of education office.
Brandon Michael Morrissette, the student who brought a handgun to West Geauga High School on April 3 with plans to shoot multiple students, is currently being held under psychiatric care, officials said during a 1 p.m. press conference at the school district’s board of education office.
Morrissette, 18, of Lyndhurst, has been charged with attempted aggravated murder, a first-degree felony; illegal possession of a deadly weapon in a school safety zone, a fifth-degree felony; and inducing panic, a first-degree misdemeanor, according to court records.
“He is not in the jail, yet. He must be medically cleared and psychologically cleared before the jail will take him,” Geauga County Prosecutor Jim Flaiz said, adding later Morrissette would likely be arraigned in the near future. “The court has issued a warrant on the charges. He will be taken into custody on the warrant, taken immediately to the Geauga County jail and an initial appearance will be set in Chardon Municipal Court, where he will be presented formally with the charges.”
Flaiz said Morrissette will have the option to have a preliminary hearing or waive it and the matter will be bound over to the Geauga County Court of Common Pleas.
“The charges are not final. There could be more charges, less charges, different charges,” Flaiz said. “Once the investigation is complete, all of the facts will be presented to the grand jury.”
On Monday, at about 8 a.m., a 17-year-old student found a bullet in a bathroom stall and alerted School Resource Officer Nick Iacampo, who secured the bullet and informed high school administrators, officials said.
Morrissette reportedly had intended to retreat to the restroom following the shooting to take his own life, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
Iacampo began reviewing video surveillance of the restroom to determine the origin of the bullet, said Chester Township Police Chief Craig Young during the press conference.
“It was determined that approximately 20 students had accessed the restroom prior to the item being found,” he said. “The school resource officer and administrators began the immediate process of interviewing each student that accessed the restroom. One of the students, identified as Brandon Michael Morrissette, was interviewed at approximately 9 a.m. and his book bag, which he had on him in class, was subsequently searched.
“Located inside of the bag was a (9mm Smith and Wesson) handgun and three loaded magazines,” Young said. “Mr. Morrissette was immediately arrested, handcuffed and searched. The search of Mr. Morrisette revealed that he also had a lock blade-style knife secured to the exterior of his pants. West Geauga administration immediately placed the high school on a ‘shelter-in-place’ status, which was disseminated to all students and faculty.”
Law enforcement and school officials determined there was no additional threat to the high school nor was there a threat to any other buildings within the district. In an abundance of caution, additional law enforcement resources were requested from the Russell Township Police Department and the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office.
“With a large police presence established, all students at the high school were released for the remainder of the day,” Young said. “Law enforcement then conducted a thorough sweep of the interior and exterior of the high school, (including) an explosives detection K-9 from the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office.”
During an interview with Morrissette — whom Superintendent Richard Markwardt confirmed had not been a known disciplinary risk — he admitted to using prior calculation and design in developing a plan to cause harm to students Monday, Young said.
“He further acknowledged that the firearm seized by law enforcement on Monday was the weapon he intended to use to inflict that harm,” he said, adding later he could not disclose where the weapon came from at this time.
Young said the Chester Township Police Department’s detective bureau, with the assistance of the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office, conducted a search of Morrissette’s home in Lyndhurst on April 3 and numerous items of evidentiary value were secured.
“The investigation into this incident is ongoing,” he said, adding he could not comment on any evidence they’ve secured thus far.
“We have no indication that there was any sharing of information, any co-collaboration by any means, and I can’t stress that enough — zero information to support any of that,” Young said, addressing a question about potential collaborators. “We are going to have a wealth of additional information to go through, and we’re going to look into every aspect of his background and the planning phase of this, but I really truly want to stress there was no indication he was working with anyone nor did he share any information in regards to this.”
When asked after the press conference whether any content was found linked to Morrissette that might have raised a red flag for officials, Young said the investigation is in its infancy and detectives still have a lot of digital content to review.
He added the police would be transparent with anything of relevancy discovered.
Young also addressed concerns about the timeline of when the bullet was reported and the school was put on lockdown.
“There’s a lot of unknowns … with investigations early on. There was access to this school over the weekend where other individuals had been in the school, so there’s really an unknown of where that bullet could have come from,” Young said. “The school resource officer and administrators had to look through a substantial amount of video evidence to narrow down students that had exited that restroom from the time the bullet was found. It would have been premature to act at that time. We didn’t really want to cause undue panic or concern until we knew there was a threat. And once that was established … we took action at that time.”
Young further explained every incident is fluid and different and officials have to work with the information they have at that time.
“If we prematurely … locked down the school, that could almost sometimes be a triggering effect to somebody that’s in a mental health crisis, so we want to keep things as normal as possible until we have a reason to shelter in place,” he said. “Any little thing could trigger somebody, so we wanted to make sure that we had the facts and the information before we made that decision and we could control things.”
Flaiz touched on recent criticism levied toward the school and police department regarding their handling of the situation.
“I’m frankly very bewildered by the fact there are these criticisms. This was handled, in my opinion, absolutely correctly and properly from beginning to end,” he said. “If you really want to be a Monday morning quarterback, you find the round in the bathroom, you lock down the school, now you’ve locked a potential school shooter in a classroom with 20 kids and he’s got a handgun in his backpack. That would not have been the right course of action. They absolutely did the right thing. Lockdowns have a place in schools but they’re not always the right answer.”
Markwardt explained the reason for closing all the district’s schools April 4, confirming a report he had received information about a threat made to the district via Snapchat after the school board meeting April 3.
“I closed the school because I was alerted to rumors of an associated threat on social media which I, in cooperation with local law enforcement, felt needed to be investigated by police prior to the resumption of classes,” he said. “It is a sad commentary that schools must face challenges to the safety of students and staff. Every threatening situation has unique nuances that simultaneously require flexibility and decisiveness. There is no one size fits all response to a crisis. On Monday, our staff and local law enforcement agencies, with the cooperation of our students, successfully navigated such a challenge.”
The district began April 5 with a school staff meeting that included teachers, support staff, administrators and members of the Geauga County Crisis Response Team.
“The West Geauga (Schools) Board of Education wishes to extend its thanks to the groups and individuals whose collective action helped the district to avert a potential tragedy this week,” Markwardt said. “The potential tragedy was prevented by the collective concerted efforts of these groups. I also wish to commend the parents of West Geauga for their support throughout this frightening situation. They trust us with their most valued possessions and we take that responsibility seriously.”
Markwardt said he was deeply grateful no students and staff were injured or killed, and acknowledged the importance of reviewing the district’s actions and protocols.
“As we reflect on the events of this past week with our staff and local law enforcement agencies, our focus will not be one of celebration, but rather one that emphasizes critical reflection in an effort to further enhance and improve our safety provisions,” Markwardt said. “Such a responsibility is one that our whole community shares.”
