LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two students were shot and wounded, one critically, inside a Los Angeles middle school classroom Thursday morning and police took a female student into custody, authorities said.
A 15-year-old boy hit in the head was transported to a trauma center in critical but stable condition, according to fire department spokesman Erik Scott. A 15-year-old girl with a gunshot wound to the wrist was taken to a hospital in fair condition, Scott said.
Three other people, ranging in age from 11 to 30, suffered minor cuts and scrapes.
Police arrested the female student and recovered a gun after the shooting that happened just before 9 a.m. at Salvador B. Castro Middle School, west of the city's downtown.
Television news footage showed a girl with dark hair wearing a sweatshirt being led out of the school in handcuffs a short time later.
Police cars blocked off an intersection near the school and parents gathered at the street corner, talking on their phones and awaiting word on their children.
Gloria Echeverria was waiting outside a line of police tape preventing people from approaching the school, waiting for news about her 13-year-old son.
"I'm just hoping it has nothing to do with him," she said. "I'm just scared for all the kids — school is supposed to be a safe place for them, and apparently it's not."
Steve Zipperman, chief of the Los Angeles Unified School District police force, said the school's campus remained on lockdown later in the morning but had been declared safe.
"We will attend to the needs of these students who witnessed this very carefully, with the understanding this is very traumatic," Zipperman said. "We have our school mental health folks that are here to support the needs of the students."
———
Associated Press writers Christopher Weber, John Antczak and Michael Balsamo in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Post a comment as
Report
Watch this discussion.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
!!!CHANGES TO ONLINE COMMENTS — PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING!!!
Effective immediately, all comments will display the user's FIRST AND LAST NAME rather than a screen name. Anyone with an existing account that did not provide a first and last name when registering will be required to update their profile before submitting a comment. AGAIN - YOUR ACCOUNT MUST INCLUDE A FIRST AND LAST NAME!
Keep it Clean. NO obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person. Comments that include verbal attacks of another commenter will not be posted.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.