The husband of an Illinois assistant principal showed up outside her middle school on Tuesday, Sept. 16, fatally shooting her and her mother before turning the gun on himself, according to police.
Officers were already nearby around 4 p.m. when gunfire erupted outside Lincoln Middle School, per a Berwyn Police Department press release. A man was seen firing a rifle into a car, then shot toward officers before taking his own life, police said, noting that officers did not return fire.
Nerissa Lee, 46, an assistant principal at Lincoln Middle School, was found in the targeted vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene, CBS Chicago and NBC Chicago reported, citing police officials.
Police said the case was a domestic-violence incident and there was no ongoing threat.
“The impact of this loss is felt deeply not only within the school community but throughout Berwyn,” the department wrote in a statement. “Assistant Principal Lee was a dedicated educator and leader who touched the lives of countless students and staff members.”
Lee’s mother was also killed in the attack, NBC Chicago reported, though the Cook County Medical Examiner has not yet released her name.
Lee’s husband, Steven Lee, 54, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the scene, per CBS Chicago, NBC Chicago and ABC7.
Shana Everage, Lee’s sister, told NBC Chicago that the fatal domestic incident “didn’t come out of the blue.”
“It had started ever since I want to say the tail end of June and basically the boiling point would have been yesterday,” she told the outlet. “They my family, I mean it’s a horrible thing, you know I have a lot of emotions. I don’t quite know what to feel.”
Classes resumed Thursday, Sept. 18 with counseling available for students and staff, the superintendent told families in a message referenced by CBS Chicago.
Students described a lockdown as shots rang out. Seventh-grader Christopher Cruz-Villogoez, who was among the approximately 100 students inside the school during the shooting, told CBS Chicago he felt “mixed emotions … sad … and a little bit anger as well.”
“I was like scared, like I was talking to my mom like like you shouldn’t come here because it was a little bit dangerous,” he said. “Because I was scared because of what was happening, and it was very scary, and I didn’t want her to be a part of the situation either.”
At Lee’s memorial service, students remembered her sense of humor and commitment to her work.
“I saw her laughing with the other people and she would laugh so hard that I didn’t understand the joke but I would also laugh,” one student told NBC Chicago.
“She was always, always about her work, she sound like she did really love her school, really loved her kids,” another student said. “She was all about what she needed to do.”