Gunman killed, two students wounded in Maryland high school shooting
A student gunman was killed Tuesday morning after opening fire at a southeast Maryland high school where two students were wounded during the chaos.
A school resource officer took down the unidentified suspect with one shot inside Great Mills High School, said St. Mary’s County Sheriff Timothy Cameron. The gunman fired at the officer at the same time, who was uninjured.
Two students were wounded during the mayhem, which began just after 8 a.m., but officials declined to say who may have shot them.
The gunman, who was brought to the hospital in critical condition, died at about 10:40 a.m.
A wounded 14-year-old boy is now in stable condition, officials said, but a 16-year-old girl remains in critical condition.
Student Terrence Rhames was outside his first-period art class when he and a few friends heard “a loud shot” and fled to safety.
“As soon as we heard it, we started running,” he told MSNBC.
The 18-year-old senior saw a girl with a blonde ponytail fall to the floor, as stunned students and faculty tried to figure out what was happening.
“We saw the teacher looking at us with a confused look,” Rhames told MSNBC.
After the second shot, Rhames said, “He was hurrying to get other students in his class and we just took out the main door.”
One Great Mills student tweeted frustration that her school was the subject of another shooting.
“You never think it’ll be your school and then it is. Great Mills is a wonderful school and somewhere I am proud to go. Why us?,” tweeted student Mollie Davis.
She later said cops came into her classroom and escorted people to the bathroom.
The facility’s nearly 1,600 students were evacuated to Leonardtown High School about 10 miles west to be reunited with their families, St. Mary’s County officials said.
One unidentified mother refused to budge, however, raging against the school for letting the gunman get in.
“I don’t care about being in the rain,” she told ABC affiliate WJLA. “I want my son out of there.”
Gov. Larry Hogan said he was “closely monitoring the situation” and state police were helping local authorities.
“Our prayers are with students, school personnel, and first responders,” he tweeted.
The sheriff’s department has a resource officer assigned to all three St. Mary’s County high schools, according to its website, and “maintain a safe learning environment.”
Parents flagged school officials last month about threats over Snapchat that a student could shoot up the school.
FBI and ATF agents based in Baltimore, about 90 miles north of Great Mills, were on scene, officials said.
The shooting comes just a month after 17 people were fatally shot at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.
The Feb. 14 massacre has inspired the “March For Our Lives” demonstration against gun violence, which is scheduled to take place in four days in Washington.
There have been 32 shootings or gun incidents at schools this year, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, not counting Tuesday’s incident.
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