ST. LOUIS – According to a 432-page incident report made public on Monday by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the 19-year-old former student who broke into Central Visual Performing Arts High School, stalked its halls, and killed a teacher and student during a mass shooting in October 2022 had written a manifesto outlining his goals and targets on that fateful day.
The manifesto is mentioned on page 422 of the incident report. While the entire manifesto was not made public, a police detective made a “brief synopsis of… observations… relative to its content.”
The first three pages of the manifesto were schematics of the CVPA campus, with handwritten notes identifying specific locations of the Annex building and gymnasium, which shooter Orlando D. Harris had labeled as his “first target.” He had specific classrooms targeted, with the names of the teachers or instructors assigned to each room.
Investigators said Harris identified teachers, students, and members of the school’s LGBT community as targets.
The manifesto included a psychiatrist’s report of Harris’ behavior and mental state, along with documents detailing his prescribed medication. Harris also had a list of psychiatrists that he did not like, but police did not mention if they were possible targets.
Harris had a checklist of everything he needed to gather to carry out his planned attack, as well as a note detailing what police described as his “satisfaction of being able to purchase an AR-15 rifle.”
Harris had recorded several names of active mass shooters, including the number of people killed by each, and said he wanted to be the “Next Mass Shooter of 2022” as part of his “Dying Declaration,” the report said.
The manifesto concluded with a countdown beginning 60 days from the Oct. 24 shooting, along with plans to kill everyone who lived at his home by burning the house down.
At 9:02 a.m. that morning, Harris parked his car on the north side of the school along Arsenal Street. He was armed with a long-barreled AR-style rifle and carried more than 600 rounds of ammunition, including seven magazines of ammunition on a chest rig he wore and eight magazines of ammunition in a field bag.
Harris tried to open a triple-paneled glass door, but it had been locked. Police said Harris shot out the lower glass panel and pushed out the security lock bar. He entered the building just before 9:10 a.m.
Unarmed security officers at the school briefly confronted Harris, alerted the rest of the danger, and notified police.
Harris shot and killed teacher Barbara “Jean” Kuczka, 61, and student Alexandria Bell, 15, police said. Seven other students were wounded, four of them by gunfire.
The initial 911 call for help came in at 9:11 a.m. Officers, some of whom were attending a colleague’s funeral nearby, arrived at the school by 9:15 a.m.
The officers entered the building and located Harris at 9:23 a.m. By 9:26 a.m., Harris was reported down. By 9:50 a.m., police gave their first all-clear of the building.
On Oct. 15, 2022, the family of the gunman reported to police that he had acquired an AR-15-style rifle from a private seller after an FBI background check stopped him from buying a weapon from a licensed dealer earlier in October.
The family hoped officers would either seize the weapon or transfer it elsewhere. The gun ended up with a third party, then eventually ended up back in Harris’ hands. Police could not take possession of the weapon at the time due to Missouri’s lack of a red flag law.
Harris graduated CVPA in spring 2021 and had no prior criminal history, though family members were reportedly concerned with his mental health before the shooting.
The SLMPD incident report details an FBI interview with Harris’ mother on the day of the shooting after the violence had ended.
She told federal agents Harris attempted suicide three times between August 2021 and sometime between April and June 2022. He’d twice been checked into a psychiatric facility and had been seeing a therapist. However, after the most recent suicide attempt, Harris told his mother that he would not go back to the hospital and ceased contact with his therapist, the report said.
Harris’ mother told the FBI she initially hid guns and ammo that had been delivered to her son and lied to him when he asked about their delivery. His siblings had discovered Harris had purchased body armor, magazine holsters, and magazines. One sibling searched Harris’ room and found the AR-style rifle hidden in an old TV box.
According to the report, the family was disappointed that police would not or could not take Harris’ guns and ammunition. Harris ultimately agreed to have the weapons and ammo placed in a storage facility.
The investigation into the Oct. 24, 2022, shooting concluded on July 26, 2024, according to St. Louis police. The incident report was only released after numerous items and details were redacted.
Read the full 432-page report below.
