Patrolman Walter Emerick, a 12-year veteran, admitted shooting the photo of Asa Coon, 14, in a hearing with Police Chief Michael McGrath, said Safety Director Martin Flask. Coon committed suicide after shooting four others in SuccessTech Academy Oct. 10.
Police said the video shows two of the four victims getting shot, but the scenes are not overtly graphic because the cameras are about 100 feet away.
Steve Loomis, the Cleveland police union president, said the union does not condone a crime-scene photo being posted on the Internet.
But officers have legitimate reasons to take pictures of crime scenes in order to recall what they saw, he said. Emerick took other images that were not posted.
"It was something I haven't seen on a 14-year-old's face before," Grassie said. It was a face of "total anger, real hatred." He said he knew that Coon was angry with him earlier because Grassie noted on his school progress report that he was failing the course.
Coon asked during the confrontation: "Now what do you have to say to me?"
Grassie said he was mentoring another student at the time when Coon turned to the student and said "you're cool," then turned his gun on the teacher.
The bullet entered Grassie's torso, hit his spleen and pancreas but missed his aorta before exiting the back. Grassie suffered the worst injuries of Coon's shooting victims.
He said Coon "seemed really troubled" and acknowledged what other teachers and students said about the youth: He was the target of student harassment for his counter-culture dress and lifestyle.
Coon was disruptive in class, Grassie said, and he tried to bring the unruliness to Coon's mother's attention, but without success.
The 14-year-old who opened fire at his high school had been upset with teachers, saying they wouldn't listen to his side of the story regarding a recent after-school scuffle that got him suspended, the teenager's uncle said Friday.
Larry Looney, who lived upstairs from Asa Coon in a west side duplex, said the two were lifting weights Tuesday when he told him about Monday's fight with another student and his three-day suspension.
"He really didn't want to talk about it," Looney said. "He said he really didn't do anything to start it. He said the teachers wouldn't listen to his side of the story.
"I just can't believe he would do anything like that."
Coon was ridiculed by classmates at SuccessTech. He had a tendency not to fight back when teased, but recently got into an after-school scuffle, was suspended and made threats that he would blow up the school or stab everybody.
"This kid finally broke," said Christina Burns, who volunteered at a school Coon previously attended. "He finally lost his mind."
"When he got suspended he said, 'I got something for y'all,' " she said. "I thought he was just playing, because he, like, said that all the time. But I see that he was for real."
On CBS' "Early Show" Thursday morning, student Rasheem Smith said the school's principal, Johneita Durant, had not found time to discuss students' concerns about Coon, The Associated Press reported.
"I told my friends in the class that he had a gun and stuff," Smith said. "He was talking about doing it last week. I don't know why they didn't say nothing.
"We talked to the principal. She would try to get us all in the office, but it would always be too busy for it to happen."
A message left at Durant's office was not immediately returned, the AP reported, and a phone call to her home was not answered.
"You get pushed and pushed and pushed, and sometimes you go over the edge," a neighbor told CNN affiliate WOIO.
"I ain't justifying nothing," said another neighbor. "I ain't saying he did the right thing, but I am saying he got pushed for a long time and asked them people to help, help, help, help, but nobody helped."
When the witness saw Coon load a gun, he left but didn't tell a teacher.
"I don't know what I was thinking, he said. "I didn't want him to shoot me."
Fifteen minutes later, the witness was eating lunch in the cafeteria, also on the fourth floor, he heard a loud sound. Yet, the witness, believing it was nothing more than a book slamming on a desk, didn't react.
Then the witness heard someone shout that a student had a gun. Just then the witness saw Asa shoot a teacher.
"I'm going to get you," he warned his tormentor. "I will get you."
When he was 12, Asa was charged in Juvenile Court with domestic violence. His mother, Lori, had called the police and told them that Asa slapped her and called her a vulgar name. She had been trying to intervene in a fight between Asa and his twin sister Nicole.
Once in court, a magistrate ordered Asa to undergo psychological testing and follow the orders of doctors. The magistrate also ordered the family to undergo therapy together.
Asa immediately refused to obey probation rules. He threw the paperwork on the floor and charged out of the office, nearly knocking his mother to the ground.
Last November, Asa had completed his counseling, anger management classes and community service. After five months without incident, he was released from probation.
Coon had a previous arrest last year for a domestic violence incident and police had been to his home before for incidents that involved weapons, according to McGrath.
Local media reported the student, who was described as a loner, was frustrated after being suspended from school for getting into a fight on Tuesday.
"I know that dude was crazy. We just knew it. You know when people are crazy, come on, man," one student who fled at the sound of gunshots told CNN.
"He was in my class ... He always wore a trench coat."
The boy was described by other students as a loner and devil worshipper who had made jokes about shooting other students in front of teachers.
"I didn't think he meant it," another unidentified student told news station WKYC. "I thought he just said it because he wanted to be popular."
According to Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson the victims are as follows:
1. A 14-year-old female sustained an injury to the knee.
2. A 14-year-old male sustained a gun shot wound to the side and was transported to Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital
3. A 17-year-old male sustained a gun shot wound to the elbow and was transported to Metro Health Hospital.
4. A 42-year-old male sustained a gun shot wound to the chest and was transported to Metro Health Hospital.
5. A 57-year-old male sustained a gun shot wound to the back and was also transported to Metro Health Hospital.
We are also getting new information on the shooter - he is a white male described as goth and was wearing a Marilyn Manson t-shirt with black fingernails.


