Teenager kills mother, injures others w/ SWORD before police shoot him
January 27, 2007 by info
Startribune reported that police are trying to figure out why a sword wielding teenager killed his mother and injured three others Friday before being gunned down by officers.
“We don’t have any background or any events leading up to the assault this morning that would give any indication of a motive,” Huron Police Chief Doug Schmitt said Friday.
When officers arrived at the home just before 6 a.m., they found the attacker’s 14-year-old sister, Rebekah Gilchrist, with several cuts to her lower arms and hands.
The officers then spotted 16-year-old Josh Gilchrist wielding a long sword that Schmitt described as “something you’d probably see in an ancient knight type movie.”
Schmitt said the boy started swinging the sword and struck one of the officers several times before the others fired multiple shots and killed the attacker.
Police in the home then found the dead body of the boy’s mom, 49-year-old mom Betty Gilchrist, and an injured foreign exchange student, who was treated and released from Huron Regional Medical Center.
Rebekah Gilchrist was taken to a hospital in Sioux Falls.
“To all those concerned and praying for Bekah, she is stable and improving with non life-threatening injuries,” the father, Jon Gilchrist, said in a statement.
Police said Jon Gilchrist was not home during the incident.
The injured officer, Dan Kight, 34, was treated at Huron Regional Medical Center and released. Schmitt said Kight’s uniform was cut by the sword.
Four officers were placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Division of Criminal Investigation, which is standard procedure when police fire a gun.
Betty Gilchrist, a former teacher at Minneota High School in southwest Minnesota, was the children’s librarian at the Huron Public Library.
Both parents have been active in the Huron Municipal Band, and Josh and Rebekah are members of the Huron High School band and orchestra.
Schmitt said he believes Josh Gilchrist was a collector of swords.
Terry Nebelsick, principal of Huron High School, said counselors and administrators met with the faculty before the start of school Friday. Many kids had already heard about the incident by the time the school made a formal announcement around 8:15 a.m.
Nebelsick said a number of students talked to counselors and pastors at the school.
Josh was an amazing person, i just want all of you to kno this was not like him. He was truly a beautiful person and a fallower of God. Alot of us (his friends) at Huron High School belive he was under some other influence that he believed to be God, but actually a demon in disquise.
This is still mind blowing. He was my buddy, but I don’t know what happened that morning. He had been so happy the week leading up to it. A month later and I still can’t believe that it happened. Of all people, quiet little Josh. He was such a sweetheart, but no one knew it. He was quiet, but didn’t mind talking to anyone about everything. He will forever be in my heart, a solemn reminder of that tragic day that God called him home.