MIAMI What started as a frenzied manhunt for a possible school shooter at Columbine High ended Wednesday with the suspect, a young woman from Surfside, apparently killing herself in snow-covered woods near the Colorado school. The early take from law enforcement authorities was that she was a twisted fan of two teens who murdered 12 students and a teacher at Columbine two decades ago, ushering in a continuing string of school massacres.
But in South Florida, the emerging portrait of 18-year-old Sol Pais was more complex. She was known to classmates and teachers at Miami Beach High as a slight, quiet honors student who had no known record of troubles. That image starkly clashed with the tortured, often despairing emotions she spilled out in an obscure online blog in hand-written postings punctuated with drawings and mentions of guns.
This was a student who, according to some of her colleagues and I did speak with some of her colleagues just minutes ago was a well-adjusted student, a happy kid, a brilliant student, very high-achieving student, Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said at an afternoon news conference.
Said one 17-year-old classmate in several AP courses: She was very quiet. I would usually see her doing homework … she didnt seem weird.
So far, Pais doesnt fit the mold of school shooters like South Floridas Nikolas Cruz, who killed 17 people last year at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Floridas worst school shooting. He had a long, documented history of emotional outbursts, discipline problems at school, a public fixation on weapons and threats against fellow students.
Many students and teachers considered him potentially dangerous. No one in the Miami-Dade school system, at least according to initial reviews and interviews, considered Pais a threat to others or herself.
But the case is still likely to put a spotlight again on the adequacy of mental-health screenings for students and gun buyers. Pais was able to purchase a shotgun, which was found next to her body, the same day she arrived in Colorado. Her gender may also raise new questions.
Just the fact that she is a female is unusual, said J. Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist and professor at the University of California, San Diego, who studies school shooters. He added: Typically, these kids will have a pattern of social and psychological issues at school and will have been identified as students of concern.
Pais lived with her family in Surfside, the small oceanside community just north of Miami Beach.
She attended Bay Harbor Elementary School and Nautilus Middle School in Miami Beach.
Samuel Weintraub, an 18-year-old senior, said he remembered Pais as a soft-spoken student at Bay Harbor who often wore dark clothing but never appeared distressed or prone to violence.
She looked like she was harmless, said Sergio Capobianco, an 18-year-old senior who attended Nautilus Middle with Pais.
Pais later attended Miami Beach High, where she was enrolled in AP and honors classes and usually kept to herself.
She didnt seem any type of way, said Justin Norris, 18, a senior. She was just bad at starting conversations.
A preliminary analysis of Pais academic history showed no documented cases of threatening or disruptive behavior in the school system, Carvalho said during a Wednesday afternoon news conference.
Over the past 18 hours or so, we have scoured through documentation specific to this student, he said. I can tell you that we have not come across any indication of any connection, any report between this young individual and law enforcement entities or disciplinary measures taken by any school.
