13-year-old student Thomas White fired one shot from a MAK-90 rifle at a hallway ceiling at Memorial Middle School. The gunshot struck a water pipe, and nobody was injured. He also tried repeatedly to shoot principal Stephen Gilbreth at near-point-blank range as Gilbreth ushered him out of the school. Joplin police say the attempt was foiled by an improperly seated ammunition magazine in the rifle. The principal was not injured. White was tried as an adult on charges of assault and firearms possession, and in 2009 he was sentenced to ten years of prison.
