8-year-old in critical condition after shooting at Washington school February 2012

8-year-old in critical condition after shooting at Washington school

AP

Feb. 22: Parents and children leave Armin Jahr Elementary School in Bremerton, Wash.

BREMERTON, Wash. –  Police say an 8-year-old girl critically wounded by a gunshot at her elementary school near Seattle apparently was shot accidentally.

Bremerton, Wash., police Lt. Peter Fisher says a gun brought to the school Wednesday discharged while still in a third-grade boy's backpack. Fisher says the bullet hit the nearby girl.

The injured third-grader was airlifted to Seattle's Harborview Medical Center, where she underwent surgery Wednesday afternoon so doctors could assess her injuries, hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg said.

Fisher says the student who brought the gun to Armin Jahr Elementary has been booked into juvenile detention for investigation of unlawful possession of a gun, bringing a dangerous weapon to school and third-degree assault.

Police are trying to determine how the child got the gun.

The school is in a quiet residential neighborhood about 20 miles west of Seattle, across Puget Sound.

The school went into lockdown immediately after the shooting, said Bremerton Schools spokeswoman Patty Glaser. Lockdown procedures call for announcements to be made over the school's loudspeakers and for teachers to lock their classrooms, she said.

Armin Jahr Elementary has about 400 students, Glaser said. She said the school will reopen Thursday and three counselors will talk to teachers, students and parents.

"Our plans at this time, school will continue as usual," Glaser said.

When asked how a gun was brought into the school, Fisher said police were still investigating the circumstances and couldn't provide details.

Police were working with the school district Wednesday afternoon to reunite parents with their children, Fisher added, and investigators were interviewing witnesses, which included students.

As of mid-afternoon, parents were still arriving to pick up their children from the school. A police officer was checking vehicles as they entered the parking lot.

Many questions remained, including how a child could have obtained a loaded weapon and brought it into a grade school classroom.

In the latest scorecard by the Brady Campaign, a national gun control advocacy group, Washington scored no points in the child safety category because the state does not require trigger locks for guns and lacks laws to prevent child access to firearms.

"Washington state is a loosely regulated state when it comes to firearms," said Gregory Roberts, executive director of Washington Cease Fire, a Brady Campaign affiliate.

1 dead after gunfire erupts at Mardi Gras parade in Louisiana February 2012

1 dead after gunfire erupts at Mardi Gras parade in Louisiana

PLAQUEMINE, La. –  Gunfire erupted at a Mardi Gras parade in Louisiana, leaving one man dead. Police have identified a suspect and were searching for him.

Authorities say 27-year-old Dewayne Milton Smith was killed Sunday afternoon during the Plaquemine Community Parade in Plaquemine, which is roughly 80 miles west of New Orleans. No one else was injured.

The Advocate reports that police were searching for 25-year-old Akeem O. Gailes in connection with the killing. Investigators say the shooting followed an argument in the street.

Tuesday is Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday. The advance celebrations are known as Carnival.

3 killed after avalanche near Washington ski resort February 2012

3 killed after avalanche near Washington ski resort

AP/The Seattle Times

Feb. 19, 2012: King County Sheriff's officers and other emergency officials work along Highway 2 near Stevens Pass ski resort in Skykomish, Wash., near where three skiers were killed in an avalanche.

STEVENS PASS, Wash. –  Three skiers were killed Sunday when an avalanche swept them about a quarter-mile down an out-of-bounds canyon at a popular resort, but a fourth skier caught up in the slide was saved by a safety device, authorities said.

The four were among three groups of skiers -- about a dozen people in all -- making their way through a foot and a half of fresh snow on the back side of Stevens Pass when the avalanche hit. Stevens Pass is in the Cascade Mountains, about 80 miles northeast of Seattle.

All were buried to some extent, but the men who died were swept approximately 1,500 feet down a chute in the Tunnel Creek Canyon area, King County Sheriff's Sgt. Katie Larson said.

Most of the other skiers, all well-equipped, were able to free themselves and rushed to dig out the victims. They performed CPR on the three men to no avail, Larson said.

The fourth skier who was swept down the mountain, a woman, appeared to avoid a similar fate because of the avalanche safety device she was wearing, Larson said.

ESPN.com identified the survivor as professional skier Elyse Saugstad, who said she used an airbag after the avalanche hit.

The men who died were believed to be in their 30s and 40s.

"Most of the people involved in this were well-known to the ski community up here, especially to the ski patrol," said Deputy Chris Bedker of the sheriff's search-and-rescue unit. "It was their friends who they recovered."

ESPN.com also reported that ESPN Freeskiing editor Megan Michelson was among the skiers and was uninjured.

Michelson said the initial slide was about 30 feet wide and three feet deep, but quickly grew as it swept away Saugstad and the three victims.

Saugstad said she immediately deployed the airbag from her backpack, crediting it with saving her life.

"I was completely buried except for my head and hands" after coming to a rest, she said.

Two of the victims were found nearby, while the third was carried "several hundred feet" farther down the mountain, Saugstad said.

Michelson said the remaining skiers called for help and skied the length of the avalanche track looking for victims, Michelson said.

"The debris pile at the bottom was massive," Michelson said.

Initial reports of the avalanche reached the sheriff's office just after noon, and for some time it wasn't clear whether the other skiers had also been swept up in the slide.

The Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center on Sunday issued a warning for high avalanche danger for areas above 5,000 feet, saying warmer weather could loosen surface snow and trigger a slide on steeper slopes. The elevation of the avalanche wasn't immediately clear.

At mid-afternoon, the temperature at the base of the Stevens Pass ski resort was 24 degrees, with light winds and good visibility. The temperature at the top of the mountain was 22 degrees, according to the resort's website.

John Gifford, the ski area's general manager, said Sunday that the resort had received 19 inches of snow in the past 24 hours.

He described the area as a popular backcountry skiing zone that can be easily accessed from the resort.

He said the slopes there are steeper than at the resort and lack the resort's avalanche control

"You need to be a highly skilled skier to do that," he said.

Stevens Pass is one of the most popular outdoor recreation areas in the state, with visitors flocking to the scenic site to go cross-country, back-country and downhill skiing, as well as snowshoeing and backpacking.

It's been a deadly winter in Washington's mountains. Four people disappeared in vicious storms while camping and climbing on Mount Rainier last month. The four remain missing, and authorities have said they're hoping to find their bodies when the snow melts this summer.

Across the West, there had been 13 avalanche deaths this season as of Thursday, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, which tracks avalanche deaths in the U.S.

Experts have said the risk of additional slides in the region could remain high all season. They attribute the dangers in part to a weak base layer of snow caused by a dry winter.

Avalanche deaths are more common in the backcountry than at ski resorts. Out of about 900 avalanche deaths nationwide since the winter of 1950-51, 32 were within terrain that was open for riding at ski resorts, according to the Utah Avalanche Center.

Also Sunday, King County Sheriff's Sgt. Cindi West said a snowboarder was killed in a separate incident at the Alpental ski area east of Seattle. The snowboarder, a man, went over a cliff.