High School Shooting In Washington: Sam Strahan Killed By Gunman – Hollywood Life

Hero, 15, Died Trying To Stop Best Friend Caleb Sharpe From Allegedly Shooting Students At Freeman HS

The student killed by alleged gunman Caleb Sharpe at Freeman High School was his best friend, Sam Strahan, 15. Sam tried to stop the shooting, and lost his own life.

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Sam Strahan, 15, will forever be remembered as a hero. The Freeman High School sophomore was best friends with Caleb Sharpe, 15, who allegedly opened fire on fellow students on September 13. Sam was shot in the head and killed as he tried to get the gunman to drop their weapon, according to other kids at the high school. “He tried to walk up and tell him,’this isn’t what you wanna do,'” Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said on Wednesday, September 13.

The gunman, allegedly Caleb, withdrew a weapon from a black duffel bag around 10:00am local time and opened fire at the Rockford, Washington high school. The weapon jammed according to police, and the alleged gunman reportedly took out the second weapon. It was at this junction that Sam, according to other students, approached him and tried to talk him down from shooting anyone else. A single shot to the head killed Sam. The 15 year old’s tragic death came just 12 weeks after his father, Scott Strahan, 49, was killed in a horrible accident on Father’s Day. Scott was crushed underneath a motor home he was working on, on June 18. His family said that Sam was still in mourning when he died himself.

“Seeing him grow up to be such a positive and happy spirit to others around him was inspiring,” Jennifer Guenther, a longtime friend of Sam’s college-aged sister, Emily Strahan, told The Spokesman-Review. “Sam was a brother who loved and cared for his older sister and always watched out for his mother.” Sam was memorialized at a candlelight vigil at River Park Square in Spokane on Wednesday night.

Joe Bowen, 42, is being hailed as a hero, too. The Freeman High School custodian approached the gunman after Sam was killed, and managed to get him to stop shooting long enough for police to arrive. Sheriff Knezovich said that his efforts saved other students who were reportedly in the line of fire. Joe wasn’t injured in his encounter with the shooter. Aside from Sam, three teenage girls, whose names have not been released because they’re minors, were shot. They’re all in the hospital and reportedly “doing well.”

HollywoodLifers, our thoughts are with the victims of the Freeman High School shooting.