Orlando Harris’ family pleaded with Missouri police to confiscate the 19-year-old’s bullet-proof vest, ammunition and AR-15-style rifle. They knew his mental health was fragile after more than one suicide attempt. But the best officers could do in a state with some of the most expansive gun rights is suggest Harris keep the weapon in a storage unit.
Nine days later, Harris entered his former St. Louis high school and declared, “All of you are going to die.”
A new 456-page police report details the efforts Harris’ family took to try to take his gun away in the days before he walked into Central Visual and Performing Arts High School on Oct. 24, 2022, when he killed a student and a teacher and wounded seven others before he was fatally shot by police.
Missouri is not among the 21 states with a red-flag law, which restrict the purchase of guns or temporarily remove them from people who may hurt themselves or someone else.
The report shows that the first time Harris attempted suicide was in the fall of 2021, just before he was scheduled to leave for college. Pandemic disruptions, the arrest of a friend in a homicide and a car wreck all may have contributed to his depression, his family and former boss told investigators.
The police report makes no mention of him attending college. Instead, he worked in the cafeteria at a senior facility, where he sometimes discussed guns with coworkers.
The following year, Harris began a countdown to the shooting. His plans included detailed maps of the school and a plan to target teachers, students and the LGBTQ community. He also had plans to burn down his family’s home with them inside.
On Oct. 8, 2022, he tried to buy a firearm from a licensed dealer in St. Charles, Mo., but the transaction was blocked by an FBI background check. The report doesn’t explain why.
On Oct. 10, Harris drove to a nearby suburb to pay a man $580 in cash for the rifle used in the shooting.
Harris’ family grew more concerned on Oct. 15, when two packages from gun and ammunition suppliers arrived. One of his sisters, Noneeka Harris, opened them, finding a body armor vest, magazine holsters and magazines. She then searched his bedroom and found the rifle.
Harris’ mother, Tanya Ward, called BJC Mental Health Services. Staff advised her to take the items to the police department.
Police told her they couldn’t take the firearm because Harris was of legal age to possess it. They said she should head home and an officer would meet them there. By the time she returned, Harris was home and insistent that he keep the gun.
His mother was adamant that the gun not be in the house, so the officers suggested a storage unit. The report said the officers also advised her on steps she needed to take to have her son deemed mentally unstable. Federal law has banned some mentally ill people from buying guns since 1968.
Ultimately, the firearm and other items were loaded into the trunk of Harris’ sister’s vehicle, including a box of ammunition that arrived the next day. She later drove her brother to a storage facility, which was about 5 miles from the high school.
She told police she “knew something was going to happen.”
On Oct. 24, shots rang out as Harris entered his former high school.
