Teen fired ‘ghost gun’ in Olathe East High School shooting, prosecutor says
Olathe East High School student Jaylon Elmore is accused of firing an untraceable “ghost gun” in the exchange of gunfire at the school Friday morning that injured him, the school resource officer and an assistant principal.
Elmore, 18, remained in critical condition as he was arraigned Monday on one attempted capital murder charge in connection with the shooting that has rocked the Johnson County suburb.
District Attorney Steve Howe revealed after the hearing that the gun Elmore is accused of firing was identified by investigators as a so-called “ghost gun,” an unregulated type of firearm built using either a kit or from a medley of individual parts without a serial number and outside the systems authorities use to track firearms.
“What we’ve seen is people are purchasing ... these different parts and it’s a way to get around the firearms laws that exist,” Howe said Monday afternoon. “In speaking to federal law enforcement officers, they said across this country it’s becoming a growing problem for public safety because individuals otherwise who would not be able to possess a firearm are purchasing them this way.”
Elmore is accused of trading gunfire with school resource officer Erik Clark during a confrontation inside the school’s administrative offices just after 10:30 a.m. Friday.
Elmore, Clark and assistant principal Kaleb Stoppel were all wounded. Clark and Stoppel were treated and released Friday afternoon while Elmore remained hospitalized.
Further details have not been released about the incident but because Clark also fired his service weapon, the county’s Officer Involved Shooting Investigation Team has taken over both the “traditional criminal investigation” and the review of Clark’s use of force.
Crime lab technicians are still examining the ballistics to determine which gunshots from the two weapons wounded each man, Howe added.
“Once we conclude their investigation and review it, we’ll make a release as far as the findings on the officer’s conduct in the use of force,” Howe said.
The Olathe East shooting came just six days after a ghost gun also was used in the fatal triple shooting in Lenexa, which police have ruled was a murder-suicide, court records show.
The back-to-back incidents highlight the need for federal regulation of untraceable gun kits and parts, Howe said.
“We knew they existed, but here within a couple weeks we’ve seen where people have lost their lives or been injured in very public situations,” Howe said. “The one incident in Lenexa where three people lost their lives and here recently the school shooting at Olathe East. It’s now time for us to start having a conversation with our Congress about putting some restrictions and not allowing people to buy these firearms.”
Although Friday’s shooting has led Howe and some state lawmakers to call for stricter firearms rules, Kansas leaders have spent much of the past decade making it easier to own guns and expand the places they can be carried.
But Howe urged leaders to consider the issue through the lens of public safety, not partisan politics, on Monday afternoon.
“I don’t think this is a Republican-Democrat issue, it’s not a pro-Second Amendment, anti-Second Amendment issue,” Howe said. “It’s something we can all agree on for public safety reasons, so I’m hopeful that if we can get the attention of Congress, then maybe we can get something passed to stop this and shut these companies down that are basically selling things that are causing death and destruction in our communities.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the way District Attorney Steve Howe defined a “ghost gun.”
This story was originally published March 7, 2022 at 5:10 PM with the headline "Teen fired ‘ghost gun’ in Olathe East High School shooting, prosecutor says."
