Nevada middle school shooting: teacher and 'shooter-suspect' dead Kyle Nucum, 13, one of about 30 students who witnessed the rampage, told the Reno Gazette-Journal that he was standing with friends next to the basketball court when they heard a loud pop, followed by screams. "I thought it was a firecracker at first, but the student was pointing a gun at the teacher after the teacher told him to put it down," he said. The student fired a shot at the teacher and the teacher fell and everybody ran away. Another child described the boy as "getting mad," pulling out a gun and shooting a student in the shoulder. It was at this stage that Mr Landsberry tried to talk the pupil into putting the weapon down. "In my estimation, he is a hero," said Tom Robinson, deputy Reno police chief. We do know he was trying to intervene. Harry Reid, the US Senate leader who represents Nevada, said on Twitter: "Michael Landsberry: Veteran, wonderful math teacher, admired by students, died a hero." Chanda Landsberry, the dead man's sister-in-law said, "To hear that he was trying to stop that is not surprising by any means The kids loved him." Terrified parents had earlier been told to report to a nearby high school car park to wait for children evacuated from the middle school. One of the injured boys was said to be in critical condition after undergoing surgery, the other was described as stable. The motive in Monday's shooting was unclear, although there were unconfirmed reports on local media that the boy made remarks about bullying before opening fire. "As you can imagine, the best description is chaos," Mr Robinson said. It's too early to say whether he was targeting people or going on an indiscriminate shooting spree.