Maryland High School Shooting Live Updates: Active Shooter Reported At Great Mills
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Update 10:09 a.m. EDT—
St. Maryland County Sheriff Tim Cameron said two students were wounded after another student pulled out a gun and opened fire around 8 a.m., according to WRC, NBC's Washington, D.C., station.
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Cameron said the shooter walked into Great Mills High School as the school day began and opened fire, hitting a female student in the hallway and a male student. It was not immediately clear what the victims' relationship to the shooter was. Both victims were in critical condition.
The gunman was later shot after exchanging gunfire with a school resource officer, the station reported. The suspect was also in critical condition.
"This is the realization of your worst nightmare—that, in a school, that our children could be attacked," Cameron told the outlet. "And so as quickly … as that SRO responded and engaged, there’s grievous injuries to two students."
"You train to respond to this and you hope that you never ever have to," he said. "Now begins the second phase of this operation and that’s the background and the investigation and the attempt for the school to return to normal, so to speak."
Representative Steny Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland and his party’s second-ranking member in the House, tweeted a statement offering his “prayers” for the students, parents and teachers at Great Mills High School.
“I’m closely monitoring reports of an incident at Great Mills High School in St. Mary’s County. My prayers are with the students, parents, and teachers. Please follow instruction from local law enforcement responding on the scene.
Hoyer applauded the Florida state legislature for passing several gun regulations in the wake of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland last month. He has also an outspoken critic of elected officials who appear “cowed” by the National Rifle Association.
Hoyer pledged to support the Stop School Violence Act, which Republican's introduced after the tragedy in Parkland.
Update: 9:40 a.m. EDT—Maryland's Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, offered his prayers to the victims and first responders and said he’s “closely monitoring the situation” in a 9:03 a.m. tweet.
“We are closely monitoring the situation at Great Mills High School,” Hogan tweeted. “@MDSP [Maryland State Police] is in touch with local law enforcement and ready to provide support. Our prayers are with students, school personnel, and first responders.”
In 2014, the National Rifle Association's political action committee, the NRA- Political Victory Fund, endorsed Hogan for governor.
“The National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) is proud to endorse Larry Hogan for Governor of Maryland,” the gun group said in a statement. “This endorsement is based on Hogan’s support for and commitment to the Second Amendment.”
Update: 9:13 a.m. EDT—St. Mary’s County Public School announced via Facebook that the St. Mary’s County Sheriff was on scene as of about 8:50 local time.
“There has been a tragic shooting at Great Mills High School. The St. Mary’s County Sheriff is on the scene and the event is contained,” the post read. “The school is on lockdown, and we ask that you do not come to the school at this time.”
Great Mills High School students will be transported to the Leonardtown High School auditorium, according to the statement. The school district asked parents or guardians to head there to reunite with the children.
Special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Baltimore Hyattsville I and II field offices were also responding to the scene.
Great Mills is about 60 miles southeast of Washington, D.C.
Original story:
Police are investigating reports of an active shooter at a high school in St. Mary's County, Maryland, and several wounded students Tuesday morning—just a month after two high school students in that area were arrested for threatening to a mass shooting in the days after one occurred at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
The shooting broke out at Great Mills High School in Great Mills, Maryland, according to WRC, NBC's Washington, D.C., station. The Sheriff's department was responding to the area, where several people had been wounded, the outlet reported.
The St. Mary’s County Public Schools confirmed the shooting at Great Mills to WJZ, CBS Baltimore. The high school is on lockdown.
The shooting comes weeks after two high school students were arrested for plotting to carry out another mass shooting at nearby Leonard High School. The St. Mary's County Sheriff's detectives arrested the teens, ages 15 and 16, after receiving a tip that they had been talking about bringing firearms to school and believed they were "too smart to be caught," according to WTTG.
Students and gun violence prevention activists are planning a nationwide march on Saturday to pressure elected officials on passing stricter gun legislation. Survivors of the Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting planned the "March For Our Lives" demonstration after a gunman killed 17 people there on February 14.