A portrait emerges of the Olathe East shooting suspect: ‘It takes a hurt kid to hurt’

Before Jaylon Elmore was charged with attempted capital murder in a shooting at Olathe East High School, he was known as a “super funny” guy. A driven athlete and “polite” student who would stay late at his former school to help his teacher.

But he was also known for his troubles. Two years ago he stole a wallet and was later convicted of robbery. He had a hard life growing up. He’d get angry at times, pick fights and threaten classmates, some friends say.

He had the expected difficulties switching schools last year, from the Bonner Springs Edwardsville district to Olathe.

But for now, we don’t know why those troubles would escalate into this police description: that he repeatedly carried a gun to school in his backpack and, when confronted on March 4, fired off five rounds. School Resource Officer Erik Clark and Assistant Principal Kaleb Stoppel were injured, as was Elmore after Clark fired his gun.

“He had a rough hand dealt to him in life. And that makes the story harder because you are a product of your environment at some point,” said a former teacher of Elmore’s, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her job security. “And as much as we want coaches and sports to help, if you see chaos, it can be easy to become chaos.”

Clark and Stoppel were released from the hospital the day of the shooting. Elmore remained there in critical condition.

And the Kansas City region is left with more questions than answers. Who is this varsity football player now facing a charge of attempted capital murder? What could have led to the shooting that rattled the community? And could the grim outcome of Elmore’s senior year have been prevented?

Several teachers, coaches, football players and students declined The Star’s requests for interviews, many saying they feared backlash due to the heightened attention on the case and Elmore’s personal life. The law office of attorney Paul Morrison, who represents Elmore, declined to comment as well.

Elmore’s mother and sister have been active on social media, but did not return The Star’s requests for interviews.

But in interviews with six friends and teachers, those who know Elmore painted a portrait of a teenager struggling to navigate a challenging past and family hardships.

Charming and troubled

Two days after the shooting, Elmore’s mom posted on Facebook, addressing the “love, support, nasty texts, nasty emails, threats, horrible phone calls and all” that the family has received.

“NO I’m not ok BUT I’m going to get through this because I know where my strength comes from,” she wrote. “Stop asking me what ima do. My first priority is my son’s life that he fighting for ... “

Friends described Elmore as caring and funny overall, with a bit of Southern charm that provides a glimpse into his Louisiana roots.

“Me and a lot of other people thought he was super funny so people would be around him a lot because he would always do and say funny things,” said former Bonner Springs classmate Dexter Gilliam.

But those interviewed allege that Elmore’s life has been unstable, and sometimes he did not live at his home. One friend told The Star Elmore briefly moved in with him and they became “like brothers.”

Elmore’s sister says in social media posts that her father was incarcerated, but she provides no details.

Last summer, Elmore completed six months of probation he received for the robbery charge.

Yet some friends told The Star they don’t believe Elmore came to Olathe East with a gun intending to hurt anyone the day of the shooting. But Elmore’s reason for bringing it remains unclear, and according to police, a student alleged Elmore repeatedly brought the weapon to school and previously “pulled the gun” on at least two classmates.

After the shooting, police found Elmore’s cellphone. On it was a text, from a female whose name was redacted in the affidavit, that read: “I TOLD YOU NOT TO EVEN HAVE THAT GUN ON YOU.”

Elmore was unable to appear at a hearing last Thursday due to his injuries. Morrison said in court that Elmore had “another surgery earlier this week and it looks like he’s going to remain in the hospital at least for a few more days.” Another hearing was scheduled for March 31.

‘Always super polite’

Elmore’s family is originally from Monroe in northern Louisiana. When he was in middle school, he moved with his mom and sisters to Kansas City, Kansas, in search of a better life, friends said.

“He was always super polite to me,” his former teacher said. “And he’s Southern, so he addressed me like, ‘Yes, ma’am, thank you, ma’am,’ which I thought was super endearing.”

It appeared to be a difficult move for the children, who some said experienced trauma within their family before leaving Louisiana. Elmore’s older sister often tweets about wanting to move back home.

“i hateeeee that my moms moved me to KC in the middle of my 8th grade year,” she tweeted last year, “but grateful because i wouldn’t have half (of what) i got now.”

In December, his sister tweeted, “when my daddy be calling me from jail it be breaking my heart.”

In Bonner Springs, Elmore ran track and joined the football team. Coaches and teachers encouraged him to pursue his goal of becoming an accomplished athlete.

“I have a lot of athletes that I sponsor and are looking to get scholarships for athletics. So I definitely hand-feed them, here’s what you need to do by your junior year,” the teacher said. “With kids like Jaylon, I’m more like, I know you love football, but you’re better at track. So here’s what we can try to do. Let’s look at community colleges that might support you in both.”

“He wanted to be an athlete. And I knew Jaylon was a good athlete, because he was a sophomore on the (football) field with varsity boys.”

His teacher said coaches encouraged him to keep his grades up so he could remain in both sports. She said Elmore enjoyed the more laid-back atmosphere of her class, where she saw him open up more and explore his creativity. On social media, Elmore had posted rap songs he said he created.

“The side that I was fortunate enough to see was very creative. And he was always super helpful. He’d help me organize things. He was just incredibly gracious and kind and motivated. He was a mover,” his teacher said. “He’d stay and help me after class. Part of me wondered whether that meant he didn’t want to go home.”

‘He felt alone’

His teacher said she didn’t experience any behavioral issues with Elmore during school, but she also did not have access to his records outside of her class. Some of his former classmates told The Star he had gotten in trouble several times.

“He would get mad easily at teachers and students and would get in fights,” Gilliam, his former classmate at Bonner Springs High School, said.

Another Bonner Springs student, Jayden Ziegler, alleged that Elmore had struggled to “follow the rules,” fought and threatened one of her friends and was “always in that head space.”

“It takes a hurt kid to hurt,” his teacher said.

Elmore was convicted in a Feb. 6, 2020, robbery, where he stole a wallet from someone “by force or by threat of bodily harm, and did inflict bodily harm,” court records show. As a juvenile, he pleaded guilty to robbery and was sentenced to six months’ probation, which ended in July 2021.

Some friends alleged that he wasn’t always able to stay in his family’s home at times over this past year.

Elmore had referenced guns on social media in the past, according to his Facebook page.

“I been a stepper this just my first time getting caught tht y’all know abt,” he wrote on Facebook on Feb. 10, 2021.

In the middle of last school year, Elmore’s family moved again, and he enrolled at Olathe East. He joined track and the football team there as well.

An Olathe East student, who asked to remain anonymous due to fears of receiving backlash, said he welcomed Elmore into his friend group right away, “just because the person he is.”

“There’s really nothing I could say, he for real had a sh*tty life,” he said. “He feels like nobody cares about him but we do, a lot of people do. He felt alone in the world.”

The shooting at Olathe East

Shortly after 10:30 a.m. on March 4, teachers throughout Olathe East High School received an alert telling them to keep students inside classrooms as shots were fired in the administrative office.

As more law enforcement arrived at the school, students remained locked down for a few hours, left to question whether there had been an attempted mass shooting. And whether they were still in danger.

News of the shooting sent the community into a frenzy. Parents gathered outside, waiting to be reunited with their children. One parent previously told The Star that his son texted him during the lockdown: “If I get shot, I love you.”

But families later learned more about what had actually happened. A law enforcement affidavit released last week details the moments leading up to the shooting. Police say a student told a counselor she overheard two boys on the bus talking about how a student named “Jay” regularly brings a gun to school. The student said “she heard he pulled the gun” on someone, and another student on the bus “said the same thing had happened to him.”

Stoppel and another administrator pulled Elmore out of shop class and brought him to the office. Stoppel advised Elmore they would search his backpack, according to the affidavit, but Elmore resisted.

Stoppel texted Clark to come to the office. When the officer arrived, Elmore allegedly pulled a green camo handgun out of his bag and fired about five shots. Clark, who told investigators that he feared for his life, shot back at Elmore, and the student fell.

Stoppel told police he tried to grab the gun from Elmore and ended up on top of him on the floor until Elmore started vomiting. He got off of the student and then noticed Clark had been shot. Stoppel didn’t realize that he was also shot.

Many in the community praised both Clark and Stoppel, who have not returned The Star’s calls for comment. But as more details have been released, others question whether the school should have handled the report of a student with a gun differently.

Olathe district Superintendent Brent Yeager has said the school’s “preparedness and our crisis planning went well.” He said the district will conduct its own investigation to review procedures.

Police said Elmore’s gun was loaded with 13 rounds, and there was a spent round jamming the gun, blocking the slide from closing.

It remains unclear how Elmore obtained a gun, although the affidavit said that police identified who it belonged to. The name was redacted.

The gun was later identified by prosecutors as a 9mm “ghost gun,” an unregistered firearm that is often assembled from a kit or purchased in parts.

Gun violence at schools

The incident was only the latest in a series of gun violence and threats made in or around Kansas City area schools in recent years. This past school year, officials have said they have noticed a rise in threats made against schools.

Last month, two 14-year-olds were found dead in a double homicide across the street from Argentine Middle School. They were students with Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools. Earlier this school year at Raytown South High School, police found a loaded gun in a student’s car — the second incident where police were called to the school to search for a loaded gun. It’s among a string of police reports on weapons found at local schools.

The Olathe East incident has sparked calls for tighter gun laws in Kansas, and many parents have also called on the school district to review safety protocols and consider adding metal detectors at entrances.

Elmore’s former teacher said, “I don’t see every weapon that comes into our building. They just have zero intentions of using it.”

“How does a kid keep something like that in their room (at home)? I think the same thing of drugs. I’m confident kids bring in pills because they don’t want anyone to find them. It’s easier to hide it on their person. They’re not using them in class, but when the drug dogs come, it’s not empty,” she said. “Just because it’s there, doesn’t mean there’s intent.”

“That’s what I’m hoping comes out. I don’t want this kid painted as a school shooter. But clearly, I don’t support it. Don’t bring a gun to my classroom. I want to go home to my kids.”

Elmore’s friend at Olathe East also said, “I don’t know what was going through his head that day. I still don’t think he brought the gun to school to kill anyone. I think he just had it to have it. We are in a suburban place. Most kids bring stuff to look cool.”

But Elmore’s intentions remain unknown. And reports from students alleging he had previously pulled the gun out in front of classmates have raised alarms, as well as questions about whether someone could have intervened earlier to prevent the shooting. And whether Elmore was a product of an environment and system that failed him.

One day after the affidavit was released, the mother of Elmore, who is Black, wrote on Facebook, without additional context: “People ALWAYS say what made a person do it…….. Imagine living in a world of people hating you for the color of your skin.”

Since Elmore has remained in the hospital, his sister has tweeted several times, saying she is missing her brother and asking the community to “please stop speaking on a situation if you know nothing about it.”

“just wanna hug & hold my brother & let him know everything will be fine.”

The Star’s Laura Bauer contributed to this report.

This story was originally published March 23, 2022 at 5:00 AM.

Sarah Ritter

The Kansas City Star

Sarah Ritter was a watchdog reporter for The Kansas City Star, covering K-12 schools and local government in the Johnson County, Kansas suburbs since 2019.