A 16-year-old California student committed suicide by stepping in front of a moving Amtrack train on Thursday. The student had threatened to carry out a violent attack against his high school earlier that day.
The student left a hand written note inside the Moorkpark High School campus. The note's contents prompted an "all hands on deck" response, Ventura County Sheriff Sargent Eric Buschow told the Los Angeles Times. The school was put on lockdown at around 8 a.m. A bomb squat and K-9 unit were later on the scene.
Then 40 minutes later authorities learned a pedestrian had been hit by an Amtrak train on tracks close to the school, Buschow told the Los Angeles Times.
Firefighters responded to the call a little after 9 a.m. They later found a body behind a strip of businesses. Authorities confirmed it was the same 16-year-old who left the note. Police did not release specific details of the note, but it was "not unlike the kinds of things seen at different school shootings in recent memory," Buschow told the New York Daily News.
"I'll tell you this: If somebody is suicidal, we're not going to sent 70 law enforcement officers to the school," Buschow told the Los Angeles Times. "There were specific things stated that this person intended to do and clearly it appears he reached a pivotal moment where he decided to take his own life rather than involve some great incident...The note indicated something much more severe at the school."
Before the body was confirmed as the student who wrote the note, authorities evacuated the school and conducted a second bomb search. No bombs or weapons were found. Evidence suggests the student acted alone, the Los Angeles Times reported. Buschow told the Daily News the teenagers' parents were notified.
"There are no words to adequately express our sorrow upon learning that one of our students took his life today," read a statement from the school district obtained by the Los Angeles Times. "We are deeply saddened as we all try to understand the events that led to this tragedy."
