A 15-year-old Maryland high schooler is dead after being shot in the chest during an in-school altercation that occurred Friday.
Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler announced at a press conference that afternoon that Warren Curtis Grant, 15, died after being shot during a dispute in a first-story bathroom of Joppatowne High School,
He added that the 16-year-old suspect will remain unnamed until he is formally charged as an adult.
According to The Baltimore Sun, officers showed up at the school around 12:36 pm after Grant was shot.
“The suspect fled the school grounds, and Grant was dragged out of the bathroom by other students,” the Sun notes. “The wounded 15-year-old was tended to by school personnel, including a nurse, a resource officer and Principal Melissa Williams, before being airlifted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in serious condition.”
Grant eventually died at the hospital.
He can be seen being dragged out in a video posted on social media.
The 16-year-old suspect meanwhile was “quickly” apprehended after running a “short distance away to some houses,” Gahler said at Friday’s press conference.
Daniel Cornitcher, a junior at the school, said he was eating his lunch in a classroom when the shooting occurred. He and other students were then rushed into a nearby office for safety as officers arrived.
“While huddling together and hiding, Cornitcher said they were able to see about 20 to 30 sheriff and state trooper patrol cars arrive through a window,” the Sun notes. “Cornitcher said communication was unclear at first. Students weren’t aware of what was happening, he said, and initially thought it was a stabbing or ‘a really big fight.'”
Around 1:13 pm, he and the other students were then told to “get out” and walk to a nearby church that’d been designated a reunification area for students to be picked up by their parents.
“I just heard a big bang, and everyone just started running,” another student who was present at the school during the shooting told CBS News.
“At first we were locked in the classroom then we ran outside since we were closest to the exit,” a third student recalled.
Senior Christopher Buniff told local outlet WBAL that he was walking “back” from his third-period class when the shooting erupted.
“I pulled out one of my headphones and heard was screaming and yelling and students running … I got into my class and they locked down the school for about five minutes,” he said.
Listen:
Breaking: Senior Christopher Buniff was walking back from his third period class when he heard a bang behind him. He explains. @wbaltv11 pic.twitter.com/DLWq5MOyKd
— Tommie Clark (@TommieClarkWBAL) September 6, 2024
According to Gahler, the yet-unnamed suspect had 10 prior contacts with the police within the past two years. Unfortunately, the sheriff added during his press conference, his team can’t interview the teen because of his age.
“We have a person who we’re going to be charging as an adult for committing a heinous crime in a school and we’re not allowed to talk to him,” Gahler complained. “That is lunacy.”
“There are families of every other student at that school, and the parents of the shooter, who have a right to know why we all stand here today,” he added.
BREAKING: I am in Joppatowne speaking to students, with parent permission, following todays’s incident. 9th grader Ny’jae Davis explains what she heard. @wbaltv11 pic.twitter.com/MalJHnZkKM
— Tommie Clark (@TommieClarkWBAL) September 6, 2024
This shooting comes days after a 14-year-old committed a mass shooting at a Georgia high school. It likewise comes a couple of months after another Maryland high school student, Alex Ye, was arrested and charged with planning a mass shooting of his own. The plan was laid out in a 129-page “manifesto” that he wrote.
“Authorities learned of the writings following an exchange Ye had via Instagram messaging with an unidentified person who felt a school shooting was ‘imminent,’ according to the teenager’s arrest warrant,” CNN reported at the time.
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