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3 Injured in Shooting at Maryland High School Maryland School Shooting Suspect Is Dead After Confrontation With Officer
(about 1 hour later)
Three people were injured in a high school shooting in southern Maryland on Tuesday, according to a local sheriff’s office. GREAT MILLS, Md. — A male student opened fire with a handgun in the hallway of a southern Maryland high school on Tuesday, the local sheriff said, injuring two students and exchanging gunfire with an officer stationed at the school.
A spokeswoman for the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office said that the people injured included the shooter, and all three were taken to local hospitals. The spokeswoman did not say what condition the injured were in or how they were connected to the school, Great Mills High School in Great Mills, an unincorporated community more than 90 miles south of Baltimore. The shooting suspect, who has not been named, was confirmed dead at 10:41 a.m., said Sheriff Timothy K. Cameron of St. Mary’s County, adding that it was not immediately clear whether or not the officer’s round of gunfire struck the suspect.
“A single shooter fired a round at a female victim just at the beginning of the school hours this morning,” St. Mary’s County Sheriff Timothy K. Cameron told a local NBC News affiliate. The shooter was later confronted by a school resource officer, he said. The sheriff’s office said it received a call of shots fired just before 8 a.m. at Great Mills High School in Great Mills, Md.
Sheriff Cameron said the school resource officer was alerted to the gunfire: “He pursued the shooter, engaged the shooter, during which that engagement, he fired a round at the shooter simultaneously the shooter fired a round as well.”
Sheriff Cameron said the officer, whom he did not identify, was not injured during the shooting. He said a male student was transported to a hospital in stable condition, and a female student was transported to a shock trauma facility, where she was in critical condition. Neither of the victims were identified.
“On this day, we realize our worst nightmare,” Sheriff Cameron said, “that our greatest asset, our children, were attacked in one of our places, a bastion of safety and security, one of our schools.”
“The notion of it can’t happen here is no longer a notion,” Sheriff Cameron added.
The shooting comes just over a month after 14 students and three adults were killed at a high school in Parkland, Fla., which has added new urgency to the nation’s debate over gun control and raised questions about the role of armed personnel in schools. Surveillance video taken during the shooting in Parkland showed Scot Peterson, the sheriff’s deputy posted at the school, did not go inside a building to engage the gunman, in an apparent violation of protocol.
Speaking at a late morning news conference, Sheriff Cameron said the school resource officer and witnesses to the shooting were being interviewed by detectives. Other students at the school had been taken to Leonardtown High School, about 15 minutes away, to be reunited with their families.
The parking lot at Great Mills High was filled with more than a dozen police and state trooper cars, the red and blue flashing lights punctuating the gray skies. Officers, some in neon yellow rain jackets, directed traffic in the pouring rain, having blocked off the area in front of the school with cars and caution tape.
“What we know thus far is that Great Mills High School began its school day this morning at 7:45 a.m. like many other days,” Sheriff Cameron said, “except for on this day a male student produced a handgun and fired a round wounding a female student and another male student in a hallway of Great Mills High School just before classes begun.”
In a statement, the school described the shooting as “tragic” and urged parents and students to stay away as the school was locked down.In a statement, the school described the shooting as “tragic” and urged parents and students to stay away as the school was locked down.
The sheriff’s office received a call of shots fired just before 8 a.m., the spokeswoman said. The F.B.I. and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sent agents to the school.
“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 St. Mary’s County Public School said in a Facebook message. Gov. Larry Hogan said his office was closely monitoring the situation, and that he was praying for the victims and the Great Mills community.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sent agents to the school. “But prayers are not enough,” Mr. Hogan said, in an emailed statement. “Although our pain remains fresh and the facts remain uncertain, today’s horrible events should not be an excuse to pause our conversation about school safety. Instead, it must serve as a call to action.”
Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan said his office was closely monitoring the situation. “Our prayers are with students, school personnel, and first responders.”