Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Austin Wyatt Rollins: The Great Mills School Shooter: What We Know So Far

An armed student named Austin Wyatt Rollins, 17, walked in to Great Mills High School in Maryland on March 20 and shot two fellow students. A female student, 16, and a male student, 14, were both wounded by Rollins. In turn, Rollins was shot dead in a hallway of the school by the school's resource officer, Blaine Gaskill, according to St. Mary's County Sheriff Tim Cameron. The town of Great Mills is located about 60 miles south east of Washington D.C.

During a press conference, officials said that a relationship may have existed between Rollins and one of the victims. On his Facebook page, Rollins said in December 2016 that he was dating a girl. Rollins says on that social media page that he lives in Lexington Park, Maryland. Rollins' aunt in Nebraska, Paula Jean Rollins, apparently didn't know that her nephew was the shooting suspect in Great Mills. Paula Rollins wrote on Facebook, "Prayers going out for my brother in law Rocky Rollins and his family, his son, Austin's, school was involved in an active shooter situation. We have still not heard if Austin Rollins is okay or not."


Austin ROllins' aunt facebookRollins' aunt's Facebook post.

Paula Rollins followed up that posting with two posts from two discredited conservative news outlets that heralded the school's resource officer as a hero.

Austin Rollins Great Mills MarylandRollins pictured in 2014 on his Facebook page.

CNN reports that Rollins was armed with a handgun and that he was killed by one round. The officer was uninjured. Sheriff Cameron told the media, "This is what we train for, this what we prepare for, and this what we pray that we never have to do. On this day, we realized our worst nightmare. The notion of 'it can't happen here' is no longer a notion."

During the lockdown that followed Rollins's attack, Great Mills student Jonathan Freese gave a chilling interview to CNN. Freese told the network, "I'm still a little shaken up... I didn't really except for this to happen. I do always feel safe, though, because they have police at the school." Freese also said that students at the school had trained for active shooting drills.

In a statement, via WJLA's Kellye Lynn, MedStar St. Mary's said, "We are currently treating one patient, a 14-year-old male, following a shooting at Great Mills High School. We first received two patients, one of whom, a 16-year-old female, we stabilized and transferred to UM Prince George's Hospital Center."

According to WJLA, a group of churches in Maryland are co-hosting a prayer meeting on the evening at 6 p.m. of March 20 for those affected by the shooting. Some of the churches involved, WJLA reports, are "Lexington Park United Methodist Church, Good Samaritan Lutheran Church, Lexington Park Baptist Church, Trinity Lutheran Church in Lexington Park, God's House Church in Lexington Park, and St. George's Episcopal Church in Valley Lee" as well as the Church of the Ascension in Lexington Park.

Go to the Next Page to Learn About Austin Rollins' Parents

Frankie Rollins Facebook page Lexington Park MarylandA meme posted on Frankie Rollins' Facebook page.

The Great Mills shooter is the son of Frankie "Rocky" Rollins and Angela Rollins. According to his father's LinkedIn page, Frankie Rollins is a boom operator with the U.S. Air Force Reserve. A boom operator works on a tanker aircraft and supplies refueling to other aircrafts. The official title for the role is In-Flight Refueling Operator. Frankie Rollins first joined the U.S. Air Force in 1987 and joined the Reserve in 2003. He is based at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland.

On his Facebook page, Frankie Rollins says that he is a native of Henderson, Nebraska, and has lived across the country in Virginia, Oklahoma, Washington and Tennessee.

School resource officer Blaine Gaskill is being heralded as a hero for his role in stopping Rollins. The Washington Post reports that Gaskill is the second resource officer to have stopped a school shooting attack. The last was during 1999's Columbine High School massacre.

The FBI's field office in Baltimore has issued a plea via Twitter asking for anyone with any video or photos of the Great Mills shooting to come forward.

More from News

Screenshot of Stephen Colbert
CBS

Stephen Colbert Makes Somber Plea To Americans In Wake Of Charlie Kirk's Death

Late-night host Stephen Colbert had a somber message for Americans as he addressed the assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk, stressing that "political violence only leads to more political violence."

Kirk died after an unidentified gunman shot him in the neck as he—ironically enough—mocked victims of gun violence at an event in Utah Valley State University. Kirk's murder has galvanized the far-right, with President Donald Trump and his surrogates claiming without evidence that rhetoric from Democrats is responsible for Kirk's death.

Keep ReadingShow less
a woman sunbathing on rocks.
a person sitting on a towel on a beach
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

People Share The Weirdest Flexes They Heard Someone Say With A Straight Face

It is never attractive to gloat.

Even so, some people can't help but brag, or "flex" as it is sometimes known, about certain accomplishments or attributes.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @thedowntheredoc's TikTok video
@thedowntheredoc/TikTok

TikToker Hilariously Calls Out Target After Champion Pants Feature Awkwardly-Placed Front Pleat

Sometimes you can just tell when something was designed *for* women, but was not actually designed *by* women.

Take, for instance, the new pleated pants available at Target from the Champion clothing line. While there's nothing wrong with pleated pants and they certainly have a suitable spot in the workplace, the latest rendition of Champion pleated pants are, shall we say, NSFW.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @kaicutch's Instagram video
@kaicutch/Instagram

Woman Flips Her Car After Belting Out Ironic Britney Spears Lyric In Wild Viral Video

Whether we want to admit it or not, we've all had our fair share of carpool karaoke and maybe even imagined our car as our own personal recording studio.

But TikToker and Instagrammer Kaitlynn McCutcheon may have gotten too into her performance of Britney Spears' classic, "Hit Me Baby, One More Time," when the road and her car both said, "Bet."

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from ​@lynnshazeen's TikTok video
@lynnshazeen/TikTok

Woman Goes Viral After Revealing How Her Obsession With Matcha Landed Her In The Hospital

Let's be honest: Too much of anything isn't good for us. It's all about the balance!

But the media and social media trends have taught us that certain things are really good for us, encouraging us to be like the "very mindful and very demure" girls and take care of ourselves. One such example is drinking more matcha, especially if you really like coffee or think you have a caffeine addiction.

Keep ReadingShow less