At least three students were shot at a Dallas high school on Tuesday and a fourth was grazed by a bullet. Police say the four Wilmer-Hutchins High School students, all males between the ages of 15 and 18, were hospitalized with injuries ranging in severity from non-life-threatening to serious, WFAA reports. One victim was shot in the leg, according to Dallas Fire-Rescue. At a news conference hours after the 1pm shooting, police said a suspect has been identified but no arrests have been made, reports the AP. Police did not say what led up to the school shooting.
The shooting happened almost a year to the day after a previous shooting at Wilmer-Hutchins, which has around 1,000 students. On Friday, April 12 last year, one student shot another in a classroom, reports the Dallas Morning News. On the following Monday, students staged a walkout, saying they didn't feel safe because metal detectors weren't used regularly and the clear bag policy was not enforced consistently. After Tuesday's shooting, Dallas Independent School District police assistant chief Christina Smith said the gun didn't enter the high school "during regular intake time," the Morning News reports. "It was not a failure of our staff, of our protocols, or of the machinery that we have," she said.
Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde said classes at Wilmer-Hutchins have been canceled for the rest of the week, but mental health support will be available, WFAA reports. "The unthinkable has happened and quite frankly, this is just becoming way too familiar, and it should not be familiar," she said. (More Texas stories.)