Sam Hengel

The 15-year-old gunman, Samuel O. Hengel, who took 25 classmates and his teacher, Valerie Burd, hostage at Marinette High School died at 10:44 this morning from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Sam Hengel was from Porterfield.


From the Green Bay Press Gazette:

The gunman, identified by Marinette Police Chief Jeff Skorik as Samuel Hengel of Porterfield, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at 10:44 a.m., a day after a five-hour standoff in which he held 23 students and a teacher hostage at a Northeastern Wisconsin high school.

Hengel was in grave condition this morning at Green Bay’s St. Vincent Hospital, Skorik said at a news conference this morning. He did not comment on the nature of the gunman’s injuries.

Hengel had two firearms and a knife along with a satchel of additional ammunition in a Marinette High School classroom when he took the sixth-period class hostage near the end of the school day on Monday. The hostages were all released after 8 p.m.

Students who would have been in the classroom during the following period were redirected to the library because of a note posted on the classroom door, Skorik said.

Staff became suspicious when the sixth-period students didn’t show up for seventh-period class.

“That was the start of putting together some pieces of the puzzle that didn’t seem right,” said Marinette School Superintendent Tim Baneck.

High school Principal Corry Lambie discovered the situation when investigating why students from that sixth-period class had not reported to their following class, authorities said in a release issued this afternoon. Lambie was confronted Hengel and told to leave, authorities said.

Lambie immediately called 911 to report the incident at 3:48 p.m. At some point between the sixth period and when law enforcement arrived on scene at approximately 4 p.m., a single shot was fired.

Baneck said Hengel was good in school and did not have a history of problems.

“It looks like this student has a clean slate,” Baneck said at a news conference this morning.

Classes at the high school are canceled today, and as for after-school activities, “I would image we’d be shutting everything down,” Baneck said. He said officials would talk later today about whether to cancel school again on Wednesday.

Corry Lambie, Marinette High School principal, said that there will be school on Wednesday.

Lambie corrected that a total of 26 students, including Hengel, were in the class.

Marinette County District Attorney Allen Brey was defensive when questioned by the press about the emergency response.

It was strange to hear members of the press being so aggressive, seemingly eager to condemn officials on how the crisis was handled, demanding details that aren't available yet. I suppose slamming police and blaming gun laws would fit the media's agenda.

Brey became rather angry.

The stress of the situation appears to be showing.
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More: Marinette hostage-taker was Boy Scout, popular

By all accounts, Samuel Hengel was a nice kid.

Good student, loved to hunt and fish, well-liked, a Boy Scout, even-keeled, plenty of friends, loving family.

What motivated the 15-year-old sophomore to bring two semi-automatic handguns and a duffel bag filled with ammunition and a knife to his sixth-hour social studies class, hold his classmates and teacher hostage for about six hours and then shoot himself in the head will likely remain a mystery.

Hengel died Tuesday morning at a Green Bay hospital without revealing a motive.

"We may never truly know why this happened," Marinette County District Attorney Allen Brey said.

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UDPATE, December 5, 2010: Mourners gather for funeral of teen who held class hostage

Photographs of a happy teen who camped, canoed and fished greeted mourners as they gathered Sunday for the funeral of a 15-year-old Wisconsin boy who held his social studies class hostage before shooting himself. None of the hostages was injured.

The stage in a school auditorium in Menominee, Mich., where the funeral was to be held Sunday afternoon, was decorated with a tent and canoe. Menominee is just across the river from Marinette, Wis., where Sam Hengel held 26 classmates and his teacher hostage for six hours Monday.

Hengel's Boy Scout and tae kwon do uniforms also decorated the stage, along with martial arts trophies and a Green Bay Packers jersey bearing AJ Hawk's No. 50. A slide show showing Hengel hiking in the woods with his family played before the funeral started.

Those gathered left messages on a board in the lobby, where photographs of Hengel as a baby, holding a fish and on a canoe trip were on display. Hengel's brother Ben wrote, "I will always miss you, brother."