(Reuters) - A 17-year-old Maryland high school student used his father’s legally purchased handgun to shoot a female student with whom he had been in a recently ended relationship, police said on Wednesday.
Austin Rollins brought his father’s Glock 9-millimeter pistol to Great Mills High School, located in southern Maryland, on Tuesday morning and shot the 16-year-old girl in a hallway, gravely injuring her, St Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
“All indications suggest the shooting was not a random act of violence,” the police statement said. “Rollins and the female victim had a prior relationship which recently ended.”
Attempts to reach Rollins’ family have not been successful.
A school resource officer confronted Rollins and fired one shot at him, as Rollins simultaneously fired a shot. Rollins died hours later at a hospital. The officer was not harmed.
A 14-year-old student who was shot in the leg during the incident was released from the hospital on Wednesday, a hospital spokesman said. The female victim, identified as Jaelynn Willey by her family, remains in critical condition, the sheriff’s office said.
An autopsy is being carried out on Rollins to determine whether he was killed by a shot fired by the officer or from a self-inflicted gunshot. Investigators also remain uncertain over who fired the shot that hit the 14-year-old, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office said.
Reporting by Andrew Hay; Editing by Leslie Adler