Unsafe America: A school boy kills 3 and injure 8 in Michigan

A 15-year-old boy murdered three students and wounded around eight others, including a teacher, in a recent high school shooting incident in the US state of Michigan.

The victims were Tate Myre, 16; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; and Hana St Juliana, 14. Officials say they did not know if they were intentionally targeted.

Police believe the suspect, a student at the school, used a handgun his father bought on Friday. The students described that they hid under the desks during the attack.

Some students had stayed home on Tuesday due to security concerns.

Police got the first emergency call from the high school in Oxford, about 40 miles (65 km) from Detroit, at 12:51 local time (17:51 GMT).

Within minutes, more than 100 calls were made to the emergency services. Officials say the suspect capitulated five minutes after police were called as officers confronted the teenager in the school corridor.

No bullets were fired during the arrest, and the defendant was not hurt, police said, adding that he had a semi-automatic pistol, which at the time still contained seven rounds of ammunition.

The exact sequence of events remains unknown, but police said they believed the youths carried the gun to school in a backpack and came out of a bathroom with the gun.

Three students died in the attack, two girls, Madisyn Baldwin, and Hana St Juliana, and Tate Myre, who died in a local deputy's car before officers could take them to the hospital.

Around than 32,000 individuals signed an online petition to rename the school's stadium after Tate, one of Michigan's most promising young American football players.

Two of the injured were currently under surgery, while the other six were in stable condition with gunshot wounds. A teacher whose shoulder suffered a wound was discharged from the hospital.

Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said investigators were missing to explain what constituted an "unexplained and unusual" act of violence, adding that the suspect did not cooperate with authorities.

"The person who has the most insight and the motive does not speak," he told reporters.

His parents told the boy not to speak to police when officers searched his home, police said. The school will be closed for the remaining week, and pupils and parents will get crisis care.

"Of course, I'm astounded. I'm devastated," said Oxford Superintendent of Schools Tim Throne.