Police: student in Nevada school shooting used a 9mm handgun from home (VIDEO)

A student at a Nevada middle school who shot and killed a teacher and wounded two other students Monday morning before turning the gun on himself used a Ruger 9 mm semiautomatic handgun, Sparks Deputy Police Chief Tom Miller told reporters Tuesday.

Police have still not identified the 12-year-old shooter out of respect for his family.

"They are grieving parents and are going through" a challenging, difficult time, Miller said.

The two wounded boys were taken to a local hospital following the shooting at Sparks Middle School in northern Nevada, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported.

The two 12-year-olds are now listed in stable condition.

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The teacher who was killed was identified by his family as Michael Landsberry, a 45-year-old math teacher and military veteran.

He leaves behind a wife and two stepdaughters, his sister-in-law told The Associated Press.

"I cannot express enough appreciation for Mr. Landsberry. He truly is a hero," said Washoe County School District Superintendent Pedro Martinez in the Tuesday morning news conference.

Kyle Nucum, a 13-year-old student at the school, told the Gazette Journal he was outside when the gunfire began.

“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, and the student fired a shot at the teacher and the teacher fell and everybody ran away," he said.

Reports of the shooting started coming in at 7:16 a.m. Monday.

The shooting happened on the school's campus, but outside the school building itself, Fox News reported.  

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It's unclear why the student took his parents handgun and chose to fire it at the school.

"As you can imagine, the best description is chaos," Tom Robinson, deputy chief of the Reno Police Department, told CNN. "It's too early to say whether he was targeting specific people or just going on an indiscriminate shooting spree."

Sparks is a city of 90,000 just east of Reno.

A candle light vigil is planned for 7 pm Wednesday in front of Sparks Middle School to honor the victims, Rev. Rev. Howard Dotson of Spanish Springs Presbyterian Church told reporters.