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Security Guard School Student Opens Fire on Classroom, Kills Teacher
Photo by CarbonNYC via Flickr
A student enrolled in a 24-week security guard course at Coast Career Institute has been arrested following the fatal shooting of his teacher in the classroom. 22-year-old Law Thien Huynh was one of about a dozen students in the vocational class. Huynh left the classroom briefly during Wednesday afternoon's session, say the Los Angeles Police Department, and returned with a handgun, then opened fire. Fellow students say Huynh and the teacher had been engaged in an argument, according to a report aired on KTLA and published on LA Now.
The LAPD say the course's 44-year-old instructor appears to be the intended victim. Friends have identified the victim as Robert Herrera. The teacher was shot and died on scene, while one of the students suffered minor injuries. Herrera reportedly worked as a security professional and had been moonlighting as an instructor at the school for about three years. The motive for the fatal shooting is under investigation.
Huynh was arrested on the scene by responding officers, who saw Huynh smoking on the sidewalk outside the school building and determined he matched the suspect's description.
The teacher died at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds. No other students were injured and it appears that the teacher was the intended victim. The motive for the shooting is still under investigation.
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