Source: Andre Bell / KSDK

A community in St. Louis was devastated yesterday after a gunman opened fire in a St. Louis high school, killing a teacher and a student and injuring seven others.

According to USA Today, the gunman, who has been identified as19-year-old Orlando Harris, shot and killed 15-year-old Alexandria Bell and 61-year-old Jean Kuczka in a classroom at the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in south St. Louis. Police say the shooter was armed with a long gun and nearly a dozen high-capacity magazines. Harris would later die at the hospital from gunshot wounds after his stand-off with officers on the scene. Seven other students were injured during the tragic innocent but were all in stable condition.

Police have yet to release a motive for the shooter or any answers to how the gunman may have gained access to the school. School officials have said the doors were locked, but Harris was still able to get into the building with guns. Commissioner Michael Sack declined to give specifics but said the situation could have been much worse.

“This could have been much worse,” Sack told CNN. “The individual had almost a dozen 30-round high-capacity magazines on him. That’s a whole lot of victims there.”

But for the father of Alexandria Bell, the 15-year-old Black girl who was tragically killed, the commissioner’s words ring hollow. Andre Bell and his family will now have to pick up the pieces after senseless gun violence took Alexandria’s young, beautiful life.

“It’s a nightmare,” Andre Bell told KSDK. “Alexandria was my everything. She was joyful, wonderful and just a great person,” he said.

He also said his daughter was an outgoing teenager who loved to dance.

“She was the girl I loved to see and loved to hear from,” said Bell. “No matter how I felt, I could always talk to her and it was alright. That was my baby.”

Source: Father Of St. Louis School Shooting Victim Speaks Out: ‘Alexandria Was My Everything’