Multiple fatalities after Texas high school shooting
Multiple people have been killed in a shooting at a Santa Fe high school in Texas, police have confirmed.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez told reporters there could be “anywhere between eight to 10 fatalities”, including students and staff members.
Sheriff Gonzalez said he could not be precise about the number of deaths at Santa Fe High School, which went on lockdown about 8am local time on Friday.
“There is one person, a suspect, in custody and a second possible person of interest that was detained and being questioned,” Sheriff Gonzalez said during a press conference.
He said the scene was secure with officers searching the building to ensure there were no remaining threats.
At least nine people were taken to area hospitals for treatment, hospital officials said.
The conditions of those people was not immediately clear.
Sheriff Gonzalez said a police officer was also being treated for injuries.
Investigators also discovered possible explosive devices at the school and off campus, the city’s school district said on Twitter.
Sophomore Leila Butler told the local ABC affiliate fire alarms went off about 7.45am local time and students left their classrooms.
She said some students believe they heard shots fired and she was sheltering with other students and teachers near campus.
A male student, who did not identify himself, described fleeing the scene in an interview with CBS affiliate KHOU.
“Three shots that I heard, so we all took off in the back and I tried to get into the trees, I didn’t want to be in sight. I heard four more shots, and then we jumped the fence to somebody’s house,” the student said.
Another sophomore Dakota Shrader told Fox 26 TV her 17-year-old girlfriend told her by phone that she was wounded but was recovering in a hospital.
“My friend got injured,” an emotional Dakota said. “Her leg, she got shot in the leg.”
Dr David Marshall, chief nursing officer at the University of Texas Medical Branch, said the hospital was treating at least three patients – two adults and one person under 18.
He said it was not immediately clear if that child was a student.
US President Donald Trump called the latest school massacre heartbreaking.
“My administration is determined to do everything in our power to protect our students, secure our schools and to keep weapons out of the hands of those who pose a threat to themselves and to others,” Mr Trump said at the White House.
This incident is the latest in a long series of deadly shootings at US schools.
Seventeen teens and educators were shot dead at a Parkland high school, in Florida, in February – a massacre that stirred the nation’s long-running debate over gun ownership.
Days after the Parkland shooting, Mr Trump said elected officials should be ready to “fight” the powerful National Rifle Association lobby group.
Early this month he embraced that group, telling its annual meeting in Dallas “your Second Amendment rights are under siege”.
The Second Amendment of the US Constitution protects the right to bear arms.
No major federal gun controls have been imposed since Parkland, though the administration is pursuing a proposed regulatory ban on “bump stocks,” which enable a semi-automatic rifle to fire a steady stream of bullets.
The devices were used in an October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas that killed 59 people but have not played a role in other major US mass shootings.
