(ST. LOUIS) — A 16-year-old girl and a 61-year-old woman were killed by a gunman in a shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis, Missouri, on Monday morning, according to authorities.

The gunman “was quickly stopped by police,” there was an exchange of gunfire and the suspect has also died, according to the St. Louis Public School District and St. Louis police.

Seven other victims, ranging from 15 to 16 years old, were hospitalized with injuries including gunshot wounds, police said. All were currently listed in stable condition, according to police.

During a press conference Monday evening, police identified the suspect as 19-year-old Orlando Harris, a former student who graduated from the high school last year.

Police said Harris has no prior criminal history, and they’re working to establish a motive, saying Monday night there are “suspicions that there may be some mental illness that he was experiencing.”

The shooting was reported at about 9:10 a.m. local time, police said. As students fled the building, they reported that a gunman was armed with a long gun, police said.

Authorities did not say how the gunman entered the building but police stressed that the school’s doors were locked.

Seven security guards were in the school, according to St. Louis Schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams. Officials said security staff identified the suspect’s efforts to enter the school and immediately notified other staff.

Police said “the scene is secure and there is no active threat.”

St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones said at a press conference she had visited students at the school when the year started.

“They were bright eyed, bushy tailed. We laughed, we sang, we danced. And now to be here for such a devastating and traumatic situation breaks my heart,” she said. “I’m heartbroken for these families who send their children to our schools hoping that they will be safe. Our children shouldn’t have to experience this.”

The mayor added, “I’m sure that everyone involved is going to have to deal with the trauma that will reverberate across our community.”

When asked about the shooting, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at Monday’s press briefing, “We need additional action to stop the scourge of gun violence.”

“Every day that the Senate fails to send assault weapons ban to the president’s desk, or waits to take … other commonsense actions, is a day too late for our families and communities impacted by gun violence,” she said.

ABC News’ Ben Gittleson, Darren Reynolds, Matt Foster and Teddy Grant contributed to this report.

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(MANCHESTER, N.H.) — The father of Harmony Montgomery, a little girl who disappeared in 2019, was arrested on Monday for her murder, New Hampshire officials said.

Adam Montgomery, 32, is charged with second-degree murder, tampering with a witness, falsifying evidence and abuse of a corpse, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella announced at a news conference Monday.

Prosecutors allege Adam Montgomery repeatedly hit his daughter in the head on or about Dec. 7, 2019. The tampering with a witness charge is for allegedly pressuring his wife to give false information, prosecutors said.

This August, authorities announced they had determined Harmony had been murdered in Manchester in early December 2019.

Harmony’s remains have not been found. She would be 8 years old if alive today.

Manchester Police Chief Allen Aldenberg became choked up when talking about Harmony at Monday’s news conference.

In honor of Harmony — an “innocent and defenseless child” — the chief said he wanted to encourage people “to do something nice for a child today.”

“Give him or her a hug, some special words of encouragement,” he said.

Formella called the arrest a “major step,” but said more work must be done.

Harmony’s case dates back to 2019, when a Massachusetts court ordered Harmony be sent to live with her father and stepmother in New Hampshire, according to a state report released in February.

Harmony’s mother, Crystal Sorey, said the last time she saw Harmony was via FaceTime in spring 2019, officials said.

In July 2019, an anonymous call was made to New Hampshire’s Division for Children, Youth and Families alleging that in a visit a week earlier, he or she saw Harmony “had a black eye that Adam Montgomery admitted to causing,” the report said. The same day as the anonymous call, a case worker visited and didn’t see a black eye on Harmony, the report said.

One week later, that same case worker noted a red mark and faded bruising under Harmony’s eyelid, and both Harmony and her dad told the worker the mark was from being hit by a toy while playing, the report said.

In following visits to the home, “the children appeared happy and healthy,” the report said. In the last visit, in October 2019, case workers found the abuse allegations unfounded but added, “the situation was scored high risk for future child welfare involvement pursuant to the Risk Assessment tool citing the history of substance use, prior family history with child protection, and economic challenges,” according to the report.

In January 2020, Adam Montgomery told the child protective services worker that Harmony had been living in Massachusetts with her mother since Thanksgiving 2019, the report said. The worker left a voicemail with Sorey to confirm Harmony lived there, but never heard back, the report said.

In September 2021, someone close to Harmony’s mother contacted the Division for Children, Youth and Families with concerns, and the agency determined Harmony had never been registered for school in Manchester, the report said.

The Division for Children, Youth and Families then searched for Adam and Kayla Montgomery.

When police found Adam Montgomery in December 2021, he gave the authorities “contradictory and unconvincing explanations of Harmony’s whereabouts,” the report said. Adam Montgomery allegedly told police Harmony’s mother had picked her up, even though Kayla Montgomery told police that Adam Montgomery told her he drove Harmony back to her mother on the day after Thanksgiving 2019, according to the report.

Adam Montgomery is expected to be arraigned on Tuesday, Formella said.

Authorities urge anyone with information on Harmony’s death or the location of her remains to call or text the case’s tip line at 603-203-6060.

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(YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif.) — A possible brutal murder in one of the most scenic places in America goes unsolved, a serial killer confesses to more than 100 murders and two generations of detectives try to crack the case.

The second season of “Wild Crime” on Hulu launches on Oct. 24. The case at the heart of this season begins in June 1983 when a man out walking with his friends’ son in Yosemite National Park finds a hand in a meadow.

“It was pretty obvious it was a human hand,” said Tom Day, who stumbled upon the crime scene. “I knew I had to get a hold of law enforcement and get somebody up there to look at it.”

“We had no idea of the who, what, when, where, why, or how this hand had come to Summit Meadow,” said Kim Tucker, former criminal investigator at the National Park Service.

The officers faced obstacles from the outset: the crime scene was in the complete wilderness, there was no widespread DNA testing at the time and there were no clues in the surrounding area.

“We didn’t have any known missing people from the immediate area,” said Tucker, “so it was very difficult to think, well, what is the next thing we should do?”

Investigators would eventually turn to a forensic anthropologist, who suggested the deceased was a young woman.

In the spring of 1984, when the case had gone cold, investigators were contacted by the California Department of Justice, who gave them a tip that an alleged serial killer was confessing to murders across the country, including one that could fit the profile of the Yosemite case.

Investigators thought this might be a breakthrough in the case, and went to meet this alleged serial killer, whose name and frightening backstory is revealed in “Wild Crime.”

The alleged serial killer was confessing to things like necrophilia and cutting up victims into “little tiny pieces” and during four months in police custody he admitted to committing 156 murders, mostly female victims.

One place that he said he had committed a homicide was “a mountainous national park in California,” said Tucker, which gave investigators a potential lead for the first time in the case.

Additionally, the alleged serial killer said in an interview with the police that he had “specifically across the United States left evidence to show I was doing the crimes.”

Investigators went to meet the alleged killer in the Sacramento county jail in August 1984.

He gave them his testimony, confessing to killing a young woman in the national park by strangulation.

A few months later, in Texas, the alleged killer provided even more details, saying that he and the alleged victim had had lunch together, eating “some fried chicken wrapped in tinfoil” and beer, before he killed her. He also said that he remembered trail markings near where the murder occurred.

These markings, the investigators realized, could have been the cross-country ski trail signs nailed to the trees in Summit meadow.

“It’s like, ‘This guy has been to the crime scene,'” said former criminal investigator for the National Park Service Don Coelho. “That’s when it hit us.”

Back in Yosemite, the investigators made crucial breakthroughs with leads from the alleged killer’s confession. They found beer cans, wrapped-up tin foil, a canteen and what seemed like a piece of fabric that could have been from the victim’s jacket.

“I don’t know that what we found was proof,” said Tucker, “but I felt like we had found the scene that he described.”

The story continues to get stranger and more unbelievable.

Aspects of the case begin to fall apart when the alleged killer recants his confession. A human skull, found across the street from the meadow, brings investigators closer to identifying the victim.

The case would eventually be taken over by National Park Service agent Cullen Tucker, Kim Tucker’s son, nearly 40 years later.

“This unidentified skeleton has a name,” said Cullen Tucker. “We need to find it. We need to help bring justice to these people, to the families.”

The rest of the investigation would lead them to name the suspected victim and uncover their relationship to an alleged bizarre California cult.

Watch Season 2 of “Wild Crime” on Hulu to learn how the story ends.

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