1 student injured in shooting at North Carolina high school

The Associated Press
[KSTP]

One student was injured in a shooting at a North Carolina high school Wednesday and authorities were looking for the suspect, officials said.

Mount Tabor High School in Winston-Salem was on lockdown after the shooting but all other students were safe, according to Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Christina Howell.

Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough told reporters that a student was rushed to the hospital with a gunshot wound from the shooting inside the school but did not address the student’s condition. The sheriff said the suspect was not in custody and he did not know if the suspect was a student.

Police blocked roads to the school, which has an enrollment of more than 1,500 students, and numerous emergency vehicles were on the scene. Parents frantic for information parked their cars on the sidewalks several blocks from the school as police directed traffic away from campus. Students and parents could be seen walking toward a nearby shopping center.

Christopher Johnson said his son told him that he heard the gunshots while in the school gym and students were told to hide because there was an active shooter on campus.

“You see stuff like this in the media,” said Johnson, whose son was still at the school awaiting transportation to a pickup point. “It’s scary to know that it actually reached out and touched you this time. My son’s not a victim, but he’s part of this and he’ll probably remember this forever.”

The city tweeted that parents should not respond to the school but go to a nearby grocery store and await further instructions for picking up students.

The sheriff’s office said other schools in the area were on lockdown as a precaution but no other shootings or injuries had been reported.

Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement that he has been briefed by law enforcement and noted this was the second school shooting in the state this week. A 15-year-old was charged after a student was shot and wounded during a fight Monday at a Wilmington high school.

“We must work to ensure the safety of students and educators, quickly apprehends the shooter and keep guns off school grounds,” Cooper said.