An 18-year-old student is dead, and another student has been arrested following a shooting at Bowie High School in Arlington Wednesday afternoon.
Arlington Police Chief Al Jones and Arlington ISD Superintendent Dr. Matt Smith held a press conference Wednesday evening to provide an update on the shooting, which was confirmed to be a homicide.
According to authorities, officers responded to the high school just before 3 p.m. after reports of shots being fired near a portable building on campus. School Resource Officers said once they arrived at the scene, they found the 18-year-old male student lying on the ground.
First responders said the student had been shot up to six times and was unresponsive.
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As a result of the shooting, the campus was forced into lockdown. Video obtained by NBC 5 showed police officers providing CPR to a person on the ground outside the school.
The victim, whose name has not been released, was taken to a local hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Arlington Police said officers helped secure the vicinity of the campus and started searching for the suspected shooter, who was later eventually found nearby.
The alleged gunman, identified as a 17-year-old male student, was taken into custody without incident sometime around 5:30 p.m. He was booked into Arlington City Jail and charged with murder on Wednesday night, police said.
Homicide detectives believe the suspected shooter and the victim knew each other, and they are still working to find out the motive behind the deadly incident. Investigators are also working to determine what kind of gun was used in the shooting, where the suspected shooter obtained it, and if the weapon was ever taken inside school buildings.
“Our hearts are with the entire Bowie High School community tonight, “ Chief of Police Al Jones said in a released statement.
“We, as a community, cannot tolerate this kind of violence. Not in our neighborhoods and not in our schools. Violence is never the right answer. We will continue to work in lockstep with our partners at Arlington ISD to ensure our schools are safe spaces where students can learn.
Arlington Police confirmed earlier in the afternoon they were at the school investigating an incident that occurred outside the building. From Texas Sky Ranger, several officers were seen investigating an area near a portable building on the south side of the campus, along Highbank Drive.
The Arlington ISD said shortly after 3 p.m. that everyone inside the building was safe, that the school was on lockdown, and that students would not be dismissed on time. About an hour later, the district said they will reunite students and families at 1001 E Division Street, at the AISD Athletics and Aquatics Center, and that parents will need to provide ID.
Erica Sims is the parent of two students at Bowie High School, a son who is a senior and a daughter who is a sophomore. Sims said her son left campus before noon and that her daughter was still in the building when the shooting took place. She said she first went to the school and then drove around the neighborhood before being redirected to the reunification center where she spoke with NBC 5's Candace Sweat.
"I got a call from my daughter, she told me there had been a shooting at the school. I panicked, of course. I've been trying to find my child and still have not been able to get her," Sims said. "My daughter knows the child who was shot. My daughter knows the child who did the shooting. My daughter knows the girl who was involved. It's a lot. I don't feel safe. I don't know how we proceed from this point. I've never been involved in something like this and I just want my child."
Other anxious parents outside the district's aquatic center said all they could do was wait for their children to be bussed from the school.
"When I get a text like that … and I can't get into the school … I'm a vet, I want to get there and make sure everybody's squared away but they've got our hands tied with what we can do," said parent Terry Brown. "It's a terrible thing. I feel for that young person's family. I don't even know if it was a boy or a girl who got shot … I don't know if they made it, but I hope they did. If they didn't, that's the worst."
In tears, Desiree Mondy told NBC 5's Keenan Willard her son, who is a junior at the school, texted her saying students heard multiple gunshots and screaming outside the building.
“Our kids are not safe,” Mondy said. "He's afraid, even though this is routine, he is afraid. But he knows what to do like this is a common practice and that's a problem. His text was, 'Oh mom, we're on lockdown,' because this is what they do all the time. Until a friend sent him a text message confirming there were shots fired and there were screams that's when I could tell he was terrified."
Andrew Oliveros, a former Bowie student, told NBC 5's Vince Sims that his sister was inside the building when the shooting took place but was thankfully far away from the gunfire.
"It's sad. It sucks because it's preventable. It's avoidable," said Oliveros. "I feel like there's not enough done or said to prevent things like this. I've gone to this high school all four years and it's not the first time this has happened."
Demitri McGary said his younger sister was at the school when the shooting took place and that she was OK. He said he hadn't talked to his sister about the possibility of a shooting at school, but felt there was little you could do to prepare.
"Nobody can be prepared for situations like this. There's really nothing you can do besides make sure they know how to handle themselves in that moment. Not to panic, to keep their composure. Make sure you can think straight," McGary said.
When asked how he'd feel seeing his sister after the shooting, McGary said because he knows she's OK it'd probably be like most any other day.
"I know she's alright, so, I guess it'll be like picking her up, you know? 'Something happened at school today.' It's a little crazy, but, it happens a lot unfortunately in this world," McGary said.
Arlington ISD announced that classes at Bowie High School would be canceled on Thursday, April 25. When students return to school, they will have the full support of the district's counseling team for as long as needed, according to Arlington ISD.
The AISD superintendent told NBC5 that the district also planned to conduct a review of the campus’s safety measures in the coming days.
"Any time you have a school tragedy we would always do something like that," Smith said. "At this time right now, we’re just gathering information along with the police department and supporting them in the investigation."
Some parents who gathered outside the school during the lockdown expressed concern to NBC5 that they were first notified by their students inside the classroom, not by Arlington ISD.
We asked the superintendent for a response to those concerns.
"We know that with students with cellphones and social media, word from students travels extremely fast," Smith said. "As soon as we got the right information, we pushed it out to our families."
The AISD superintendent also said that the district would conduct a review of the communication process used to alert families of the lockdown.
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