Dozens of students from a Utah Middle School in a Salt Lake City suburb reportedly witnessed the shooting of a student at a nearby high school. The student has been shot by another student studying at the middle school.
Reports say that the student is a 16-year-old male and critically wounded from the gunshot. Another teenager, name not revealed yet, inflicted the injury to the 16-year-old during an argument. Authorities identified the school as Union Middle School and Hillcrest High School. The victim is reportedly attending Hillcrest High School while the perpetrator attended Union Middle School, KUTV reported.
Sandy police Sgt. Dean Carriger said in a statement that they apprehended a 14-year-old male student who is believed to be the shooter. The incident took place on Tuesday at around 3 P.M. during the time that students were dismissed from school and were starting to leave the area.
An ambulance reportedly took the 16-year-old victim to a hospital, which has not identified. The teen was in surgery as of Tuesday evening, and no other updates have been released about his condition yet. Two shots were reportedly fired, but it was unclear if both bullets hit the victim, St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
The 16-year-old is believed to have confronted the 14-year-old after class, and that witness said they were fighting before shots rang out. One witness from Hillcrest High School, identified as Jasen Trotter, said that the teens seemingly planned the encounter beforehand and met just shortly after they dismissed. The shooter reportedly fell to the ground crying after he fired the gun.
Detectives are still interviewing students as to why the shooter shot the victim and what the argument about. It is also unclear if the shooter had the gun at school for the whole day. The schools were placed on a lockdown but were lifted shortly after the incident.
