The report details St. Louis high school shooter Orlando Harris' struggle with his mental health before the 2022 shooting

St. Louis police released a detailed report Monday about a 2022 school shooting that left a student and a teacher dead. This was the first time it became public that the shooter was struggling with his mental health and had to be hospitalized for attempting suicide.

The 456-page document also details the concerns of Orlando Harris' family and their attempts to get help.

Tanya Ward, the 19-year-old shooter's mother, told agents that things seemed “normal” during his first two years at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School. After the Covid pandemic, everything changed, the report says, noting that Harris' “heart was no longer in it after he went back to school after a full year out of school.”

Harris graduated from school in 2021. On October 24, 2022, he allegedly opened fire at the high school, killing health teacher Jean Kuczka and 15-year-old Alexzandria Bell. Several other people were injured and taken to hospital.

According to the report, Ward told agents that her son had attempted suicide twice and thought about it once. The first time was in August 2021, a few weeks before he was scheduled to transfer to an out-of-state college, the report said. Police were called after his colleagues found a note he said he had left at his workplace.

The report goes on to say that Harris was taken to the hospital and placed in a psychiatric facility. He was eventually released and began seeing a therapist regularly.

According to the report, he was said to have contemplated suicide around Thanksgiving in 2021. He told his therapist, who then instructed Ward to have him committed, which she did, the report said. It says he was released before Christmas of the same year.

According to the report, Harris attempted suicide again in the summer of 2022. He was immediately taken to hospital.

“After his discharge from the hospital, Orlando H. Ward informed him that he would not be returning to the hospital and stopped contact with the therapist,” the report said.

A little more than a week before the shooting, the family learned that Harris was having gun and ammunition packages delivered to his home, the report said. His mother took the packages and hid them. After his sister found out about the packages, she searched his room and found an AR-15-style rifle, according to the report.

Ward told agents that she also learned that her son had attended a gun show and purchased more tactical gear and firearms, the report said.

“Ward advised that based on the information gathered above, she decided to call the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Crisis intervention officers responded to their residence,” it said.

The officers told Ward that they could not legally take her son's firearm. Harris allegedly got into an argument with his mother, saying he had worked hard to earn the money to buy the gun and wanted to keep it.

The report said the family contacted police “because they were concerned about Orlando H.'s mental illness and believed he should not own firearms.” The family wanted police to get Harris' firearm took with him, it is said.

In the end, Harris said he would appease his family by placing the gun, tactical gear and ammunition in a storage room. His sister drove him to the facility, the report said.

After the shooting, officers went to the storage room and found it completely empty.

One of Harris' sisters said, according to the report, that “she knew something was going to happen.” Another sister said that when she heard about the shooting, she thought her brother was involved but hoped he wasn't is, the report says.

The report also includes an interview agents conducted with Harris' psychiatrist, Hetal Patel.

Patel said she saw Harris twice in August 2022. According to the report, he was referred to her after his inpatient psychiatric hospitalization because of a suicide attempt

Patel described Harris as having “feelings of worthlessness” and “distorted expectations of himself,” including thoughts that he was a failure at everything, the report said. She said he lost interest in games and other hobbies in 2021.

She prescribed him medication, but later learned he wasn't taking it. She also tried to persuade him to undergo psychotherapy, but he refused, saying he had tried it in the past and it didn't work, the report said.

During one meeting, Harris allegedly talked about shooting people at his old high school, the report said. He said the thought “lasted for an evening and then disappeared,” the report says, adding: “No planning.” I didn't want to do it and hadn't thought about doing it since that evening. “

Patel was supposed to see Harris in September, but he never showed up. Clinic staff reached out to him on October 11 but were unable to contact him.

Authorities said Harris entered the school in an “aggressive and violent manner” with a rifle and was carrying nearly a dozen 30-round magazines. Officers found him eight minutes after arriving at the scene.

He was arrested after a shootout with authorities and later pronounced dead, police said.