Teacher fatally shot by student on last day of classes

LAKE WORTH, Fla. - A 13-year-old student sent home from school for throwing water balloons on the last day of classes returned and fatally shot a teacher with a semi-automatic pistol Friday, police said.

Seventh grader Nathaniel Brazill returned to Lake Worth Community Middle School shortly before 3:30 p.m., Police Chief William Smith said. He spoke to teacher Barry Grunow, pulled out a .25-caliber pistol and fired a single shot, killing the 35-year-old language arts teacher, he said.

Brazill flagged down a police officer about a quarter mile from the school and surrendered. He was being questioned by police late Friday.

There were no other injuries and no other suspects, Smith said.

Brazill had returned to school to see some students in Grunow's class before school let out for the summer, police Lt. Rachel Houston said. When the teacher asked him to leave the classroom, the boy pulled out the gun and fired, she said.

Grunow, of Lake Worth, was shot in the face, said Mabel Cardec, a spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County School Board.

Grunow was one of Brazill's teachers, but another teacher had suspended the boy.

Amanda Grunwald, 13, who was in Grunow's class, said the teacher was standing in the doorway, talking to students in the hallway when he was shot.

''He was standing out in the hall, telling everybody to go back into class because it wasn't time to be dismissed,'' she said. ''Five seconds later he was shot.''

Brazill likely will be charged with murder, but must appear before a judge Saturday morning to determine whether he will be charged as an adult or juvenile. He was to be taken to a juvenile detention center Friday night.

Police said Brazill got the gun and bullets from a dresser drawer at his grandfather's house last week. Smith said police are considering filing charges against the grandfather.

Brazill's grandmother, Eberlena Josey, said the boy went to her house mad and wanting a key to his house at about 2:30 p.m. Josey said her daughter had called her in the morning and said that Brazill was being suspended and that he was going to have to walk home.

She said she didn't have a gun in her house. It was not clear if she is related to the grandfather police said owned the gun used in the slaying.

''I thought he was the best boy. He was good,'' she said.

The gun used in the slaying was described as a Raven, a semiautomatic manufactured by Phoenix Arms. The pistol is compact, barely five inches long, and is easily concealed.

Brazill earned A's and B's and had perfect attendance, said Nat Harrington, a spokesman for the school board. ''He had no problems of any kind, prior to this,'' he said.

Harrington said Brazill told investigators he liked Grunow.

Outside the apartment where Brazill lives with his mother, stepfather and 2-year-old sister, neighbors said he was not a troublemaker. Carmen Torres said she often heard him playing the flute or would see him playing basketball outside with his friends.

Grunow, who had worked at the school for seven years, had a wife, a 5-year-old son and infant daughter.

''I know Barry loved the kids and he would want us all to keep loving the kids,'' said Jeff Neal, a teacher at the school and a friend of Grunow's.

Lake Worth is just south of West Palm Beach. The school has about 1,500 students. It is a community school because adult-education classes are held there in the evenings.

Lake Worth is in Palm Beach County, the fourth largest school district in Florida and 14th largest in the nation with more than 149,500 students.