No students were injured when a former student of a southwest Houston charter school opened fire inside the building Friday morning, injuring a school administrator, before surrendering to police, authorities say.
The shooting happened at about 11:45 a.m. Friday at YES Prep Southwest Secondary, a charter school serving students in sixth through 12th grades.
Houston Chief of Police Troy Finner said Friday afternoon a man approached the charter school armed with a rifle and fired through the glass doors to get into the building.
Once inside the man fired at an employee, hitting the unidentified person in the back, Finner said.
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The chief said the gunman, who was in the school when Houston police arrived minutes later, surrendered without incident when approached by officers.
No students were injured in the shooting, the school said in a statement on Facebook.
Firefighters with the Houston Fire Department provided first aid and transported the victim to a nearby hospital. The school identified the victim late Friday afternoon only as a school administrator, adding that the injury was not believed to be life-threatening.
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In interviews on KPRC-TV, several students identified the victim as the principal but that information has not been confirmed by police.
A motive for the shooting has not been revealed and it's not yet clear if the employee who was shot was targeted or if the shooting was random.
The gunman, whom Finner identified only as a 25-year-old Black man, was quickly identified by school officials as a former student at the school.
Houston police searched the school and confirmed there were no other injured people in the building and found no evidence that the gunman had an accomplice.
A line of students in masks streamed out of the school just before 1 p.m., holding their hands up to show officers they were not carrying a weapon. Multiple students told reporters that they saw blood while leaving the building.
"You don't want anything like this to happen," Finner said, "but I want to commend those students. Every student I've seen coming out, they were calm. The administrators, the teachers, outstanding job. I want to commend them … they train for it."
