Texas, Nawacita – At least eight people were killed, and others were injured, in a shooting on Friday (18/5/2018) morning at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Tex., according to law enforcement officials. A suspect was in custody.
The injured included at least one police officer, whose condition is unknown, Ed Gonzalez, the Harris County sheriff, said. In addition to the suspect in custody, a person of interest has been detained, he said. Both are believed to be students, as were the majority of the dead.
The gunman opened fire inside the school at about 7:45 a.m., around the time school was about to start for the day, according to Joe Giusti, a Galveston County commissioner. He said the injured officer worked for the Santa Fe school district as a school resource officer. The gunman was uninjured, he said.
Officials with the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston told reporters late Friday morning that they had received at least three patients: One adult was being operated on, another adult was being evaluated in the emergency room and one minor had been admitted to the hospital.
The Santa Fe Independent School District said that law enforcement agencies were securing the building and that students were being transported to the nearby Alamo Gym, at 13306 Highway 6, where parents could meet them.
Several hours after the shooting in Santa Fe, a rural town between Houston and Galveston, police cars blocked the road off the state highway where the town’s only high school is located.
The school’s buses filed out along a nearby street, empty but for their drivers. Earlier in the morning, Billie Scheumack, 68, was in her backyard when she heard what sounded to her like a couple firecrackers.
“I thought the kids were playing,” Ms. Scheumack said. “But then I heard ambulances and fire trucks. It didn’t sound right, so I went out front.”
There she saw kids from the high school running, scared, clutching their phones, down her street, Tower Road, about a block from the school. A neighbor told her that some kids had been shot.
“In this little town, you wouldn’t think something like this could happen,” Ms. Scheumack said.
Leila Butler, a sophomore at the school, told ABC13, a local affiliate, that fire alarms at the school went off at about 7:45 a.m.
Another student told the station that a gunman entered her art class with what looked like a shotgun and began shooting at students. She said she saw a student get hit in the leg before she and others started running.
The Santa Fe Police Department, Harris County Sheriff’s Office, Galveston County Sheriff and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives all said they were assisting in the response.
President Trump commented on the shooting in a tweet on Friday.
“Early reports not looking good,” he said. “God bless all!”
The New York Times – https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/us/school-shooting-santa-fe-texas.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
