ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department on Monday released a long-awaited report ahead on the mass shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) High School.
On Oct. 24, 2022, 19-year-old former student Orlando Harris shot several people, killing teacher Jean Kuczka and 15-year-old Alexzandria Bell before he was shot and killed by responding police.
Editor's note: The documents, which may be viewed on the police department's website, include disturbing details of the incident. Readers should view the materials at their discretion. The report can be found by clicking here.
In the week after the two-year anniversary of the shooting, police publicly released 456 pages related to the investigation, including the extensive police report accumulated from the nearly 70 responding officers and additional information from the shooter's manifesto.
Manifesto details
Among the new findings is that Harris planned to target members of the LGBT community in his mass shooting and wanted to burn his own home down with his family inside. Police said both of those details were found in a spiral notebook that officers refer to as his "manifesto".
A number of the charges in the incident report were classified as bias crimes, with the targeted group being the LGBT community.
5 On Your Side has previously reported that Harris wrote that certain teachers had wronged him. He circled their classrooms on a map of the school. He had issues with other students, too.
Interview with mother
Additional details about Harris were provided by his mother. Police first made contact with her at 4:15 p.m. on the day of the shooting. They informed her that her son was the CVPA shooter.
Later that day, police interviewed her in person. She told officers that her son tried or contemplated killing himself multiple times between August of 2021 and sometime between April and June of 2022.
She said he started seeing a therapist after the August 2021 suicide attempt.
The report also went into detail about the family's attempt to take Harris's gun away from him, which 5 On Your Side previously reported.
According to the report, Harris's younger sibling told her about two packages that Harris received from "ammunition places" on Oct. 15. The mother said she hid the packages when she got home, but Harris started asking about them when he got an email that said they were delivered.
One of Harris's sisters opened the packages to find a body armor vest, magazine holsters and magazines. After opening the packages, she searched Harris's room and found an AR rifle in an old TV box.
Harris's mother told police she then checked Harris's bank account and found more charges for tactical gear and firearms. The report said that was when she called police to try to get them to take the gun away.
As 5 On Your Side has previously reported, police had no legal grounds to take the gun away.
"Officers responded and determined at that time the suspect was lawfully permitted to possess the firearm," a statement from police said in the days after the shooting.
Harris's mother told police they came to an agreement and Harris moved the gun and all the ammunition to a storage facility. Police checked the storage locker after the shooting and found it was empty.
Another of Harris's sisters who was described as having the best relationship with him told police her brother changes about two years ago when he was in a car crash that damaged his car. She said he had been a lot quieter recently.
The sister was on the bus headed to a local university for class when she heard about the school shooting.
"She thought [Harris] was involved," the report said. "She further advised that she hoped it was not [Harris]."
Interview with psychiatrist
Police interviewed a psychiatrist who had Harris as a patient twice, on Aug. 8 and 22. He was referred to her after he tried to kill himself in July of 2022.
She said in the second appointment, Harris told her he had thought about shooting people at his old high school in the last two weeks. He told her that "the thought lasted for one evening and then went away."
She said he told her he hadn't made any plans, didn't want to do it, and hadn't thought about doing it since.
Police said his "manifesto" had a detailed plan and a 60-day countdown leading up to the shooting. Sixty days before the shooting would have been Aug. 25, 2022.
The psychiatrist was scheduled to see him again in September but he did not show up. Attempts to reschedule the appointment were "met with negative results."
She prescribed medication for Harris and thought she had convinced him to take it, but discovered that the prescription was not filled.
