A high school student in North Carolina died Monday morning after being shot by a classmate, authorities say.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools issued a statement, saying the student was shot at Butler High School in Matthews, North Carolina, about 12 miles southeast of Charlotte. The injured student, a male, was taken to a hospital but later died of his injuries, the Matthews Police Department said.
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Police also said that the shooter, who was also a student, was taken into custody and that police have recovered the weapon. They believe the shooting was an “isolated incident.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Clayton Wilcox said in a press conference outside the school that the shooting occurred after a disagreement between two students. He said the disagreement occurred in a hallway and that there were “kids in the hallways when it took place.”
Identities of either student have not yet been released.
The shooting occurred around 7 a.m., shortly before classes started, the Charlotte Observer reports. A school resource officer was nearby and “the situation was under control very quickly,” Wilcox said. Surveillance video showed there was a fight between two students and that it was “isolated to the hall.”
Wilcox said it was not clear how the suspect was able to get a gun into school and noted that not all bags brought onto campus are “actively” searched by staff.
“We worked really hard on school security the last six or seven months,” he said. “We will review procedures and security plans and perhaps will do things that are a little more aggressive.”
He added that the district may discover that it “didn’t intervene quickly enough in a bullying situation.”
ABC-11 reports that Butler’s principal told parents of the incident in a phone message. Meanwhile, dozens of parents gathered outside the school of about 2,000 students to wait for their children.
The high school’s lockdown was lifted around 9:15 a.m., with students streaming out, many crying and hugging their parents.
The school district wrote in a statement that “no immediate danger exists” and that “an investigation continues.” Parents of students at Butler High School only were instructed to pick up their children. “Classes will proceed on campus today for students remaining on campus,” the statement continued.
WSOC reported that angry parents were gathering around the school’s campus, despite being told that they were to wait for updated at a nearby church. Ryan Kenyon, a junior, said the school went into lockdown and that students were told to go to the nearest classroom and be quiet. He said they stayed there for 90 minutes, their first block of classes for the day. Then they were allowed to go to their normally scheduled second class, he said.
Parent Scott Simpson questioned the school’s decision to return to a normal schedule so soon after the shooting. “They’re changing classes during an active crime scene,” he said.
Photo credit: WBTV News
