ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — A high school senior who walked onto a classroom stage and shot himself in the head with a sawed-off shotgun in front of a teacher and four other students was a good student and didn’t appear to be in distress, according to officials.
According to police spokesperson Jim Willett, 17-year-old theatre student James Austin Stailey killed himself on Friday after asking the other students in the class “serious philosophical questions” about the purpose of life.
The other students at Arlington High School were sent home early after school officials announced his death over the public address system. He had played the lead in the school play, a murder mystery called “The Real Inspector Hound,” performed on Friday and Saturday.
At around 1:00 p.m., Stailey entered the school’s theatre room. According to Willett, the teacher Carla Posey and pupils were questioned on Friday while she sat on a stool on the little platform.
Then, according to Willett, Stailey took a sawed-off,410-gauge shotgun out of a brown suitcase, put it against his right temple, and fired the trigger.
Before anyone could respond, it happened, according to Willett. When Lt. T.G. Moore spoke with some pupils, he stated that humor was in his character. Therefore, they did not think it was unusual.
At the scene, Stailey was confirmed as deceased. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office said an autopsy would be done.
Joanne Stailey, the teenager’s mother, reportedly informed a neighbor that she thought her son had the sawed-off shotgun when he arrived home for lunch on Friday.
Tom McGregor, a neighbor of the Staileys, reported that Mrs. Stailey informed him she discovered the shotgun’s sawed-off end in her son’s room. According to McGregor, she had looked in vain for a suicide note.
When Harold Elliott, an Arlington police chaplain, informed the mother of her son’s passing, he remarked, “(The mother) was quite strong.” The news was heartbreaking.
No issues had arisen, Elliott declared. None of the typical symptoms were present. She couldn’t imagine this kind of thing, but it occasionally happens when they fail to give signs.
Elliott noted that Stailey’s grades were excellent. When they learned of Stailey’s passing, some of his classmates sobbed hysterically.
Buddy Davis, assistant superintendent of the Arlington Independent School District, said that he was attempting to prevent the children from becoming frantic while also giving them enough time to return home and reassure their parents that it wasn’t them before they heard about it on the news.
Chris Weems, a student, remarked that James “was an intense kind of guy.” Concerning his personal life, he was honest with himself.
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