School teacher Michael Landsberry hailed as hero Sparks, Nevada: A Nevada school teacher and Afghanistan veteran is being hailed as a hero after he was killed trying to protect his students from a classmate who opened fire with a semi-automatic handgun. The unidentified shooter killed himself with the gun after a rampage that occurred in front of 20 to 30 horrified students who had just returned to school from a holiday break. Two 12-year-old boys were injured in the attack. Police said teacher Michael Landsberry had confronted the gunman and allowed students to flee during the shooting outside Sparks Middle School. Landsberry, 45, served two tours in Afghanistan with the Nevada National Guard and leaves behind a wife and two stepdaughters, Sparks Mayor Geno Martini said. "He proudly served his country and was proudly defending the students at his school," Mayor Martini said. On his school website, Landsberry posted a picture of a brown bear and took on a tough-love tone, telling students, "I have one classroom rule and it is very simple: `Thou Shall Not Annoy Mr. L.'" "The kids loved him," his sister-in-law Chanda Landsberry said. She added his life could be summed up by his love of his family, his students and his country. "To hear that he was trying to stop that is not surprising by any means," she said. Police said 150 to 200 officers responded to the shooting, including some from as far as 100km away. Students from the middle school and neighbouring elementary school were evacuated to the nearby high school, and classes were canceled. The middle school will remain closed for the week. "As you can imagine, the best description is chaos," police chief Robinson said. It's too early to say whether he was targeting people or going on an indiscriminate shooting spree. At the evacuation centre, parents comforted their children. "We came flying down here to get our kids," said Mike Fiorica, whose nephew attends the school. You can imagine how parents are feeling. You don't know if your kid's OK. The shooting happened on the school's campus and ended outside the school building, according to police. "It's not supposed to happen here," Chanda Landsberry said. We're just Sparks - little Sparks, Nevada. It's unreal. The mayor praised the quick response from law officers who arrived at the scene within three minutes of a flood of 911 calls to find the gunman already dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. "They got it under control very quickly and shut down the scene," Martini said. Sparks, a city of roughly 90,000 that sprung out of the railway industry, is just east of Reno. You see it on TV all the time. You just don't think it's going to happen to you," Mr Martini said. Both wounded students were listed in stable condition. One was shot in the shoulder, and the other was hit in the abdomen.