Two students are hurt and the shooter is dead after a Maryland school shooting occurred Tuesday morning.
A student pulled out a gun and shot two other students at Great Mills High School in Great Mills, Maryland before the shooter was killed, the St. Mary’s County sheriff says.
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BREAKING: Sheriff: Resource officer fired at Maryland high school shooter who was fatally shot.
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 20, 2018
The Associated Press reports that the school resource officer fatally shot the shooter.
The shooter entered Great Mills High School at the beginning of the school day and shot a female student in a hallway, Sheriff Tim Cameron told News 4, an NBC affiliate in Washington, D.C.. A male student was also hit by a bullet.
The female student is in critical condition and the male student is in stable condition. The shooter, a male, has died.
Authorities continue to investigate for a motive and information about the relationship between the students.
The resource officer, who is a trained, armed deputy sheriff, was not hurt after the officer and shooter exchanged gunfire.
The campus was placed on lockdown and school leaders said that the “event is contained.”
Jonathan Freese, a student at Great Mills, told CNN he was in lockdown in his math class. Police are going through classrooms to clear the school, and students will then be escorted out of the school, Freese said.
“I’m still a little shaken up,” he said. Freese said gunshots were fired in the art hallway of the building, and police responded “really quickly” following the event.
The county sheriff said deputies are on the scene, and that parents or guardians should stay away. Parents have been instructed to wait at nearby Leonardtown High School to reunite with Great Mills students once they are cleared to leave the campus.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Rep. Steny Hoyer tweeted that they are monitoring reports and urged people to follow the instructions of local law enforcement at the scene.
Hogan offered prayers for “students, school personnel and first responders” and Hoyer expressed prayers for “students, parents and teachers” involved in the incident.
The high school reportedly received threats of violence in February, when a Snapchat post warned students of a possible shooting planned “within the next few days,” The BayNet reports.
Following the threats, Great Mills principal Dr. Jake Heibel sent a message to parents and guardians.
“Law enforcement was contacted and an investigation was conducted, which included interviews with students and parents to determine the validity of the potential threat. The threat to Great Mills High School has not been validated at this time. However, we will have additional security today and we will continue to investigate the source of the postings,” he said.
The school also held a school safety discussion following the threat last month.
Great Mills is about 60 miles southeast of Washington, D.C. Deputies were called to the school just before 8 a.m.
Cameron told News 4 that his department prepares for emergencies.
“You train to respond to this and you hope that you never ever have to,” he said. “This is the realization of your worst nightmare — that, in a school, that our children could be attacked. And so as quickly … as that SRO responded and engaged, there’s grievous injuries to two students.”
He added, “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.”
