A former Olathe East High School student who shot a school resource officer at his school in 2022 will serve 20 years in prison for the incident that left himself and two others injured.
On Wednesday, Jaylon Elmore, who was 18 at the time of the shooting, was sentenced in Johnson County District Court to 240 months in prison for attempted premeditated murder and eight months for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The charges will run concurrently.
Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan handed down the sentence.
Elmore pleaded guilty to the two charges in January. He was sentenced in front of the three people that were in the room when gunfire was exchanged — including school resource officer Erik Clark and assistant principals Kaleb Stoppel and Leslie Simmons — as well as a group of Olathe police officers and Elmore’s family.
The incident happened in 2022
On March 2, 2022, Elmore was taken out of class and brought to the school’s main office after some students told administrators that he had brought a gun to school that day, according to previous Johnson County Post reports. Officer Clark was also called to the office.
Once in the office, Elmore reached into his bag and pulled out a handgun that was later identified by prosecutors as a “ghost gun” containing 13 nine-millimeter rounds, according to a criminal affidavit.
Investigators say Elmore began firing, getting off about five rounds toward Clark. The officer returned fire. All three — Elmore, Stoppel and Clark — were hit during the exchange.
Both Clark and Stoppel were discharged from a local hospital within 24 hours of the shooting.
Elmore suffered two gunshot wounds, one to his abdomen and one to his left thigh, and required weeks of hospitalization afterward.
The shooting had a long-reaching impact
While the victims of the shooting were in court for the sentencing, they declined to issue a victim impact statement, which Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said was understandable.
“It’s not surprising, based on the trauma they went through that day,” he said. “Especially in light of Kaleb Stoppel and Leslie Simmons, two principals who spent their life working to educate kids, and nothing in their life experience prepared them for what happened that day. It forever changed them.”
The shooting affected many people, Howe said.
“It also affected every employee that was outside the door (of the office) and throughout the building, every kid that that day, every parent who had a kid at that school that day,” he said. “This had a wide-ranging impact on the community.”
When prosecuting attorneys discussed the plea deal with the officer and two assistant principals that Elmore eventually accepted, Howe said they found it “agreeable.”
Elmore took responsibility for the shooting
After Howe spoke, Elmore read a letter that he wrote, asking for forgiveness and accepting responsibility for the incident.
In the letter, he said he regretted bringing a gun to school and causing trauma to everyone on campus. He accepted his punishment and asked for mercy from the victims of the shooting.
“I can’t change the past. All I can ask for is forgiveness,” he said.
Victim wishes the best for Elmore
After the sentencing, Stoppel spoke with the press outside the courtroom.
“I think today, after three years, comes some comfort, some peace, some resolution,” he said. “I know that’s what I’ve been seeking in my family, and I know whether (a) parent had kids in that school that day, or whether they have been lifelong Johnson County and Olathe citizens, this is a big deal in our city, and I hope people aren’t scared. I hope people can heal through this.”
When asked what he felt about Elmore accepting responsibility for the shooting and his sentencing, Stoppel offered grace.
“I appreciate his attitude and his respect in the courtroom, and I do appreciate him sharing a statement,” he said.
He added: “I do wish the best for him, and I know that’s hard to say, considering the circumstances. But I believe in a second chance for everyone. I do believe and stand by our good relationship that we had. We all worked very hard for him at school to help propel him on his way.”
Stoppel also praised the entire school administration and hopes the results of this incident will give them hope, rather than fear.
“The other thing that’s been on my mind, significantly — and it hasn’t come out a lot — is the work that our administrators and our teachers and our adults in school do to not only keep our schools safe, but also prevent, to the best of their ability, violence, and that starts and ends with relationships,” he said.
“I hope that can be part of the conversation moving forward here, across the nation, is the power of positive relationships between adults and children in schools that can be the number one intervention,” he added.
The relationship that the three victims had with Elmore likely mitigated any further violence that could have happened that day, Stoppel said.
“Officer Clark had a relationship with Jaylon. I had a relationship with Jaylon. I care deeply about him, as I would many students, and I believe, desperately believe, that it was because of that relationship, combined with the training and the strategy and the experience that administrators go through, that’s what allowed us to get peacefully to the office, that’s allowed us to peacefully have a conversation, and that allowed us to the point where, unfortunately, it escalated, as it did, but that was that was done by intent, in a secured spot where four people were impacted,” he added.
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