SandyMaloneLexington Park, MD – The family of 16-year-old Jaelynn Willey announced on Thursday that she will be taken off life support and won’t survive, according to The Baltimore Sun.
Wiley was a victim of the Maryland school shooting which was stopped by a school resource officer.
Jaelynn’s mother said on Thursday that her daughter was brain dead and had no life left in her.
“On Tuesday, our lives changed completely and totally forever,” she said. “My daughter was hurt by a boy who shot her in the head and took everything from our lives.”
Authorities said that there were no behavioral indicators to warn of the Great Mills High School shooter’s impending attack, and that they believe the tragedy was the act of a lovesick teenage boy.
“All indications suggest the shooting was not a random act of violence,” police said in a statement.
On Tuesday, 17-year-old Austin Rollins shot Wiley, his former girlfriend, in the hallway of their southern Maryland high school.
The school resource officer, St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Deputy Blaine Gaskill, responded within seconds of the shooting.
Deputy Gaskill and Rollins fired almost simultaneously, and the teen gunman was fatally shot. It’s not yet known whether Rollins was killed by the deputy’s bullet, or if his wound was self-inflicted.
Another student, 14-year-old Desmond Barnes, was wounded in the exchange, The Baltimore Sun reported.
Barnes, who was shot in the leg, was treated and released on Wednesday from the hospital.
The St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office said there’s evidence that Rollins and Willey had “a prior relationship which recently ended,” according to The Baltimore Sun.
On Wednesday, authorities said that Rollins had stolen the Glock handgun he used in the shootings from his father, WJZ-TV reported.
Neighbors and friends of Rollins’ family said there were no warning signs before the teen shot his former girlfriend.
“Never in a million years could I have imagined he would do something like this,” Adlai Traver told WJZ.
Traver, 18, attended Great Mills High School and knew everyone involved in the March 20 incident. He said he used to play cards with Rollins during down time in band class.
“I was in the car when I heard it was him. I pulled over and almost puked,” he said.
Neighbor Toni Foreman said she never would have guessed Rollins would commit an act of violence.
“He was a good kid,” Foreman told WTTG. “He played with my son and his cousins when they were out there playing football during the summertime. He would help shovel snow whenever we were all out here shoveling snow. For Halloween and stuff, they would always have candy out for the kids. I never ever had any issues with him at all whatsoever.”
Deputy Gaskill, a six-year veteran of the sheriff’s department who was also a member of the SWAT team, was being widely lauded for stopping Rollins quickly, before there could be any additional loss of life.
St. Mary’s County Sheriff Tim Cameron said the “immediate response and engagement” of the school resource officer “stopped any further assault or attack on the other students.”
“The SRO engaged the shooter. The shooter and the SRO exchanged shots, and the incident ended there,” the sheriff said.