Guard describes scene of Portsmouth school shooting

PORTSMOUTH

In the Wilson High School cafeteria last spring, a teenager pointed a gun back and forth, “panning” a crowd of students, a security guard testified Wednesday.

Then the teen fired a shot in the air, sending students fleeing, many trying to slide under a metal gate that served as a partition in the cafeteria.

The guard, James Flippens, was a witness in the trial for Keith Elliott, a 16-year-old being tried as an adult on charges including brandishing a firearm and discharging a firearm in a school.

No one was injured in the April 28 shooting, but the incident was chilling to a community worried the worst could have happened. The trial is continuing today with closing arguments before jurors begin deliberating.

Elliott’s attorney, Rebecca Robinson, asked the jury Wednesday to keep an open mind. She said a shooting at a school is scary but what happened at Wilson was very different from the school shootings in Columbine, Colo., and at Virginia Tech.

The prosecutor, Andrew Kolp, put several witnesses on the stand, including a student who said he opened a locked door for Elliott because the teen displayed a gun and he was scared.

Joseph Leon Taylor, an in-school suspension coordinator, testified that Elliott came into his classroom and seemed frustrated and agitated. Elliott used a profanity to say he was tired of people picking on him.

Students in his class first noticed the gun, Taylor said. One said it wasn’t real and then another said it was.

Asked by Kolp how he felt at the time, Taylor said, “Just kind of numb.” He said he made no movement and that students ran to his desk. But Elliott left quickly.

Taylor said he grabbed a radio to report a student in the school with a gun and went to follow Elliott. Within seconds, he heard a shot.

Flippens, the security guard, said Elliott looked at him and said, “They’re not going to mess with me today, are they?”

The guard said he asked Elliott to put down the gun and the teen smiled and started walking down the hall. He turned a corner as Flippens was talking to 911 dispatchers, and the security guard lost sight of him, but heard a shot.

Flippens saw Elliott fire the next shot up in the air, then walk to a table and put down the gun. The teen then walked out with his arm around a girl, Flippens said.

A police officer testified that Elliott was taken into custody in the 1000 block of Cherokee Road and that the teen said the gun kept jamming and he wasn’t trying to hurt anyone. Elliott told officers he wished he had kept the gun and then he would have gotten shot by police, the officer said.

Detective Robert McDaniel, who later interviewed Elliott, said the teen told him he had a conflict with a teacher and “he was going to prove he wasn’t a punk.”

Janie Bryant, (757) 446-2453, janie.bryant@pilotonline.com