Texas sheriff: 1 student dead, 1 hurt in school shooting

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Texas sheriff: 1 student dead, 1 hurt in school shooting 

 

ALPINE, Texas (AP) — A 14-year-old girl died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after shooting and injuring another female student Thursday inside a high school in West Texas, according to the local sheriff.

 

Authorities haven't released a possible motive for the gunfire that erupted shortly before 9 a.m. at Alpine High School in Alpine, about 220 miles southeast of El Paso. The shooting was followed by a series of unrelated threats to other locations in the area made by a male caller that added to the chaos of the day and diverted law enforcement from the high school.

 

"That's ridiculous for someone to call in something like this when we've got this situation going on," Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson told radio station KVLF.

 

The sheriff said the family of the girl who died had moved to Alpine, a town of roughly 5,900 residents, about six months ago. She was a freshman at the school, he said, but he declined to provide other details. In recent decades, the majority of school shooting suspects have been male.

 

Dodson said the injured student ran outside seeking help and was taken to a hospital with injuries that weren't considered life threatening. A U.S. Homeland Security officer responding to the shooting also was injured; he was shot in the leg when a U.S. marshal accidentally discharged his weapon, Dodson said.

 

Big Bend Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Ruth Hucke said the hospital treated two people from the incident. She said one was treated and released, while the other was transferred. Hucke didn't specify which patient was released, but officials said the injured officer was transferred to a hospital in Odessa.

 

The shooting at the high school prompted a lockdown at Alpine's three public schools, which were later evacuated.

 

Alpine police Chief Russell Scown said even after the shooter was found mortally wounded in a bathroom at the school, it wasn't immediately clear that she was the assailant. Emergency responders at one point thought two shooters may have been involved.

 

After an emergency board of trustees meeting Thursday afternoon, officials at the Alpine Independent School District issued a statement closing its three schools Friday. The statement said the district will have counselors and clergy available Monday when classes resume. It is also holding a training for staff on responding to trauma and will hold a parent and community forum Sunday night.

 

Law enforcement officials were also dealing with the other threats in the wake of the shooting. They said they don't believe there was a connection between the threats and the shooting at the high school.

 

Authorities said threats were phoned in to an Alpine hospital and to Sul Ross State University, which is about a mile from the high school. Officers and bomb-sniffing dogs had to search for explosives in each building of the university, Dodson said. None were found.

 

"Right now, we think we've got some nut, who in the midst of one of our most emotional times here at our school started calling in these threats," Dodson said at an afternoon news conference, adding, "Basically, he's what we're looking for right now."

 

There was also a threatening note left at a motel in Marathon, Texas, about 30 miles east of Alpine.

 

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said earlier that he's monitoring developments in the Alpine shooting and promised to provide support for law enforcement agencies investigating the matter.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-09-09

[ClutchClark]

Some parent(s) failed to properly secure their firearm and now their daughter gained access and is dead. 

 

 

[mesterm]

And schools are allowing concealed firearms on campus.

[Gonsalviz]

15 minutes ago, mesterm said:

And schools are allowing concealed firearms on campus.

Not by students.

 

[mesterm]

8 minutes ago, Gonsalviz said:

Not by students.

 

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/08/texas-guns-campus-carry-law-160830212222468.html

 

http://concealedcampus.org/

[Gonsalviz]

2 minutes ago, mesterm said:

 

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/08/texas-guns-campus-carry-law-160830212222468.html

 

http://concealedcampus.org/

14 yo's don't go to college.

[mesterm]

2 minutes ago, Gonsalviz said:

14 yo's don't go to college.

 

Yes. Though my point is 18 year olds are hardly mature enough to handle their emotions, let alone firearms.

[Gonsalviz]

1 minute ago, mesterm said:

 

Yes. Though my point is 18 year olds are hardly mature enough to handle their emotions, let alone firearms.

They have serious background check and are licensed to carry. It is not a free for all.

[Basil B]

11 hours ago, ClutchClark said:

Some parent(s) failed to properly secure their firearm and now their daughter gained access and is dead. 

 

 

 

Problem is the parents were allowed to have fire arms in the first place...

 

As far as I know there is no law in the states about securing fire arms, it would be a real news story if a kid were to walk into a British school with a fire arm, let alone kill someone with it.

 

Wounder why the parents felt a need to keep guns? possibly now they are asking themselves the same question...

[ClutchClark]

2 minutes ago, Basil B said:

 

Problem is the parents were allowed to have fire arms in the first place...

 

As far as I know there is no law in the states about securing fire arms, it would be a real news story if a kid were to walk into a British school with a fire arm, let alone kill someone with it.

 

Wounder why the parents felt a need to keep guns? possibly now they are asking themselves the same question...

 

Since there are millions of legal firearm owners in the US and since you have readily admitted you don't know any of the circumstances of why this firearm was in a household, your opinion appears purely conjecture. In case you failed to notice, this incident occured in the US and not Britain. And you ar not correct in your assumption that there are no laws about securing firearms.

 

Our US culture recognizes the wishes of millions of Americans who own firearms legally and are responsible. Your suggestion is like saying that there was another car accident resulting from negligence and so we need to make cars illegal. 

[mesterm]

17 minutes ago, Gonsalviz said:

They have serious background check and are licensed to carry. It is not a free for all.

 

Yeah, let's see how the serious background checks work at the next school shootout. 

[Gonsalviz]

11 minutes ago, mesterm said:

 

Yeah, let's see how the serious background checks work at the next school shootout. 

I wish you gun grabbers would butt out. You either come from  a severely restricted society or you have been bamboozled by American Democrats. 

 

Just to let you in on that, most Democrat lawmakers will not ever actually vote against guns. That is because they want to be reelected but they will spout the rhetoric.

[ClutchClark]

4 hours ago, mesterm said:

And schools are allowing concealed firearms on campus.

 

Mestern,

 

For the benefit of the non-Americans on here, I think it is important to point out that this incident happened at a High School and there are NO discussions anywhere about allowing HS students to carry firearms to school. In fact, the vast majority of HS students are not even old enough to be in posession of a firearm without an adult present.

 

There is enough emotion about this topic and providing as much detail as possible on this subject is the best method of keeping posts civil and informative and not just baiting or flaming.

[mesterm]

3 hours ago, Gonsalviz said:

I wish you gun grabbers would butt out. You either come from  a severely restricted society or you have been bamboozled by American Democrats. 

 

Just to let you in on that, most Democrat lawmakers will not ever actually vote against guns. That is because they want to be reelected but they will spout the rhetoric.

 

The statistics on gun violence in the US would speak for themselves, but sure, whatever pleases you.

[ClutchClark]

17 minutes ago, mesterm said:

 

The statistics on gun violence in the US would speak for themselves, but sure, whatever pleases you.

 

Well thats mighty nice of you neighbor to honor my request at sticking to the facts.

 

Thank you.

 

Just for reference, there are approximately 300,000,000 guns in the US and approximately 100,000,000 gun owners (1/3 of the adult population).

Edited September 9, 2016 by ClutchClark

[Stargeezr]

Nothing to see folks, just another shooting in the land where the right to be armed is in their laws.  What a country! With this kind of mentality, there will not be a change in my lifetime.  I feel bad for the sheriff to get shot, but I heard that was an accident.

 I held and shot a pistol a few times, and I would rather own a rifle, or shotgun as they are easier to handle and not fire by accident plus rifle and shotguns are more effective in shooting anything.

Geezer

 

[mesterm]

11 hours ago, ClutchClark said:

 

Well thats mighty nice of you neighbor to honor my request at sticking to the facts.

 

Thank you.

 

Just for reference, there are approximately 300,000,000 guns in the US and approximately 100,000,000 gun owners (1/3 of the adult population).

 

Not the statistics I was referring to obviously. But whatever, you Americans deal with yourselves (hopefully not by shooting each other based on your whims and fancies).

Edited September 10, 2016 by mesterm

[Gonsalviz]

As a verifiable statistic, The US ranks #4 on the list of gun murders. If you remove 4 cities, none of which are in Texas, these same 4 cities have the strictest gun control laws, the US ranks 4th from the bottom of the list. I bet you can guess which ones.

I might add that I would not only not live in these 4 cities, it would be unlikely that you would find me driving through them.