A shooting in Overland Park, Kansas reportedly left two elementary school employees in critical condition on Tuesday morning.
Overland Park Police are on the scene, responding to a shooting that took place at around 9 a.m. at Sunrise Elementary School, according to a report by local CBS affiliate KCTV. Sources inside the department verified that two adults are in critical condition, but no students were injured. They have no information on possible suspects.
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The Overland Park Police Public Information Officer, John Lacy, also spoke to local ABC affiliate KMBC News. He revealed that there are two other crime scenes that police are responding to.
At 10:15 a.m. local time, police took a moment to speak to reporters, offering a few more details as the investigation continues. An officer told CBS News that witnesses driving by saw the bodies of the two shooting victims lying on the Sunrise Elementary playground, at which point they called authorities. Both victims remain in critical condition.
Meanwhile, they believe the same shooter was behind a failed attempt at a car-jacking nearby. Shortly after the shooting, a gunman attempted to steal a black Denali SUV in the area, but he was unsuccessful.
Live footage showed heavily armed police swarming the neighborhood. Residents were reportedly urged to shelter in place and lock down their homes. There is still no word on who those workers were and what they were up to at the school on Tuesday morning.
Overland Park is situated just south of Kansas City, not far from the Missouri state line. It is the second most densely populated city in the state. Sunrise Elementary School is on the 15800 block of Linden Street.
Classes at Sunrise Elementary School have been over since the end of May, according to the school’s official website. There is nothing on the calendar for the month of July, so it is unclear why anyone may have been in the building on Tuesday morning.
The Blue Valley school district has a lengthy page on its website dedicated to school safety, where it lays out some stringent policies to protect its students. The schools focus on violence prevention by getting to those that feel bullied as early as possible, it says, in the hopes of creating “an atmosphere of kindness, respect and fairness in every school building and [being] a safe harbor for all students, especially those who are experiencing turmoil at home and among their peers.”
As for physical safety precautions, the district employs methods taken directly from the Secret Service. There is also a School Safety Task Force in place performing a constant assessment.
